
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



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<: 



^heli^AS 



UNITED STATES OF AMEEICA. 



SHORT AND FAMILIAR 



ANSWERS 



TO THE 



MOST COMMON OBJECTIONS 



URGED AGAINST RELIGION. 



PROM THE FRENCH OP 

L^ABBE DE SEGUR, 

FORMERLY CHAPLAIN OF THE MILITARY PRISON OF PARIS. 



'7 



No. 37 Barclay Street, 
1880. 



7r 









Copyright, 1880, by P. O'Shea. 



PUBLISHER'S PREFACE 



rr^HE diverse and incoherent doctrines of the 
-*- various Protestant sects, without any point 
of agreement among themselves except oppo- 
sition to the Catholic Church, have in great 
measure paved the way for the propagators of 
the shallow materialism which, although it has 
no root in our intellect or affections, is now, 
nevertheless, the greatest obstacle to the spread 
of Christian truth. 

The incoherence of Protestantism has lent a 
deceptive glare to the bold assumptions of men 
who, however respectable in their own domain 
of material science, lower themselves to the level 
of the merest charlatans when they deal with 
the great questions of religion. 

It is sad to observe to what an extent belief 
in the divinity of Jesus Christ, in the immor- 
tality of the soul, and even in a personal super- 



PUBLISHER'S PREFACE. 

intending Providence is fast disappearing from 
among the young men of our day who have been 
brought* up under Protestant influences. 

Are not some of our Catholic young men in 
danger of being carried away by this tide of 
infidelity ? Can they escape entirely the baleful 
influences that surround them ? Should they 
not be taught all that is necessary to preserve 
themselves^ and be so fortified that their exam- 
ple and teaching would tend to arrest those false 
principles that are fraught with so much danger 
to the well-being of society ? To effect this, 
good books are certainly useful ; 'and we know 
of no book better fitted for this purpose than 
this admirable work of Segur. More than two 
hundred thousand copies of it have already been 
circulated in France. 



AUTHOE'S PEEFACE. 



HERE is a little book, which I have made 
expressly for yoii;, my dear reader. It will 
displease you, perhaps, at first sight ; al- 
low me, nevertheless, to offer it to you; for that 
is a certain sign you particularly need it. 

A good book, they say, is a friend. 

I hope, whatever you may think of it, that I 
now present to you one of those very friends. 
Eeceive it as one's friends should be received, 
with kindness, and an open heart. I offer ii to 
you in the same way. 

Although this friend speaks of rather serious 
things, I have every reason to believe that he will 
not tire you. I have strongly impressed this 
upon him, and he has promised not to preachy 
but simply to tallc to you. After having read 
the last chapter, you shall tell me if he has kept 
his word. 

You will remark, no doubt, that the prejudices 
to which I oppose an answer, are of three kinds. 
Some spring from impiety, they are the worst ; 
I have commenced with them ; others spring 
from ignorance ; others^ again, from a kind of 
cowardice. 



iV AUTHOR S PREFACE. 

I hope the greater part of these objections are 
unknown to you^ and that you haye never se- 
riously entertained them. 

I have, nevertheless, noticed them, as a pre- 
servatiye for the future. It is the antidote 
which, by way of precaution, I giye you before- 
hand. 

I pray G-od that these simple conyersations 
may do you good, that they may win your heart. 

Having learned by a sweet experience that 
true happiness consists in knowing, loving, and 
serying God, I have no more ardent desire than 
to see my own happiness, which is so pure, so 
solid, become yours also. 

The intention is good. That is something, 
above all in these times. Is the book itself 
good ? I trust so, but I know my slender skill. 

You will find, no doubt, many questions 
treated too briefly ; but I haye been afraid of 
tiring you, my dear reader, and I haye chosen 
rather to be incomplete than to put you to sleep. 
Wo to the book one nods over ! 

As to this one, I adyise you not to read too 
much of it at a time, but, nevertheless, to read 
it through, from the heginning to the end. Eead 
with reflection, carefully weighing the reasons 
which I present to you. / heg you, above all, 
conscientiously and honestly to seek the truth, not 
to reject it, if it present itself to your mind. 
When the heart is upright and sincere, light 
breaks upon it yery quickly. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Author's Preface 3 

1. What have I to do with religion ? I have none, and that does 

not prevent me enjoying excellent health 9 

2. There is no God 16 

3. When one dies, there is an end of every thing 18 

4. Every thing is governed by chance — otherwise there would 

not be so much disorder on earth. How many things are 
useless, imperfect, bad! It is clear that God does not 
concern himself about us 22 

5. Religion is a very good thing for women 32 

6. It is enough to be an honest man ; that is the best religion 

of all, and it is enough 33 

7. My religion is to do good to others 39 

8. ReUgion, instead of speaking so much of the life to come, 

ought rather to occupy itself w^ith the present one, and 
destroy its misery 42 

9. We ought to enjoy life ; we must have a good time of it ; 

God is too good to have created us for any thing but hap- 
piness 45 

10. The Apostles and early Christians were Communists. They 

were poor, and had all things in common ; they were pur- 
sued and hunted down by the civil authorities, just as 
the Communists are 54 

11. There are many learned men and people of mind who do not 

believe in religion. , 56 



vi conte:n'ts. 

PACE 

12. Priests make a trade of religion, they do not believe what 

they preach 62 

13. Priests are drones in the hive J of what use are they ? 65 

14. There are certainly some bad priests ; how can they be the 

ministers of God ? 68 

15. Priests ought to marry. Celibacy is contrary to nature 69 

16. I only believe what I comprehend. Can any reasonable man 

believe all the mysteries of religion ? 73 

IT. I would willingly have faith, but I cannot ..... 76 

18. All religions are good 79 

19. Is Jesus Christ any thing more than a great philosopher, a 

great benefactor of mankind, a great prophet ? Is he 
really God ? 87 

20. It is better to be a Protestant than a Catholic ; one is just as 

much a Christian, and it is nearly the same thing 102 

21 Protestants have the same gospel that we have. 117 

27. An honest man ought not to change his religion. We ought 

to remain in the religion in which we were bom 119 

23. The Catholic church has had its day 121 

21. For my part, I want the pure gospel— primitive Chris- 

tianity : 124 

25. I have my owm religion. Every one is free to practice his 

religion as he understands it ; it is a matter that concerns 
me only, and I serve God in my own way 127 

26. Priests are men like others ; the Pope and the Bishops are 

men : how can men be infallible ? I am willing to obey 
God ; but not men like myself 129 

27. Out of the pale of the church there is no salvation ! What 

intolerance ! I cannot admit any thing so cruel 132 

28. But what have you to say about the massacre of St. Bar- 

tholomew? ..... ..■..;, ^ 135 



co:5ttents. ^^i 

PAGB 

29. There is no such place as hell ; no one has ever returned 

thence to prove it 138 

30. God is too good to damn me 143 

31. God has foreseen from all eternity whether I shall be saved 

or lost. I may do what I will ; I cannot change my 
destiny 145 

32. It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles the soul. 

God will never damn me for a morsel of meat. Meat is 
no worse on Fridays and Saturdays than on other days . . 148 

33. God has no need of my prayers. He knows my wants with- 

out my tellxDg them to him 150 

34. I pray, and do not obtain what I ask for, I only lose my time. 153 

35. What have I ever done to offend God that he should send me 

go much trouble ? 154 

36. What is the use of praying to the Virgin Mary? It is great 

superstition. Besides, how can she hear us ? 156 

37. Why are there no more miracles ? 161 

38. Why is Latin the language of the Church ? Why use an un- 

known tongue ? , - 166 

39. Priests are always asking for money 168 

40. Confession is an invention of the priests 170 

41. What is the use of confession ? 175 

42. I do not need to go to Confession. I have nothing to reproach 

myself with ; I have neither killed nor robbed any one. 
nor have I injured any one. I should have nothing to say . . 180 

43. It is so tiresome to go to confession , 185 

44. To go to confession was all very well when I was at school ; 

but now— 186 

45. I know some devotees who are no better than their neigh- 

bors. So and so, who goes to confession, is none the 
better for it , 187 



viu COKTEI^TS. 

PAGE 

46. How can the body of Jesus Christ be really present in the 

Eucharist ? It is impossible 189 

47. I do not need to go to mass : I pray to God just as well at 

home 194 

48. I have no time 198 

49. Icannot! It is too difficult 202 

50. I should be laughed at I We must not be singular ; we must 

do as others do 206 

51. One ought not to be a bigot. . . 212 

52. A Christian life is too tiresome. It is too melancholy. To 

deprive oneself of every thing, be afraid of every thing, 
whatalifel 214 

53. I am not worthy to approach the sacraments : we ought not 

to abuse holy things 217 

54. My sins are too great ; it is impossible that God can par- 

don me 218 

55. Youth must pass 220 

56. Extreme unction kills a sick man. It is enough to frighten 

him to death. The priest should never be sent for while 
consciousness remains 222 

57. I will practise the duties of religion some day, when I am 

more at leisure. I will go to confession by-and-by, on my 
death-bed. Certainly I will receive the sacraments before 

Idle 225 

Conclusion .^ 230 



SHORT m FtMILIJlR miSWERS 



TO THE 



MOST COMMON OBJECTIONS AGAINST 
RELIGION. 



I. 

WHAT HAVE I TO DO WITH RELIGION ? I 
HAVE NONE, AND THAT DOES NOT PREVENT MY 
ENJOYING EXCELLENT HEALTH."^ 

Answer. Accordingly^ I do not ofter it to 
yon as a means of growing in lieiglitj or en- 
joying good health. 

But, honestly, are we then in this world 
only for that ; and have we no higher destiny 
than onr oxen, our dogs, and our cats? All 
nations, in all times and places, have always 
been convinced of the contrary, and it appears 
strange to me that you should be right, against 
the whole world. 

It is about this higher destiny, which is 
yours, mine, that of our kind, that religion is 

^ The author begins with the objection of the lowest 
kind of mere animal man. 



10 SHOKT AKD FAMILIAR A:J>rSWEIlS 

« 

concerned. Nothing can touch lis nearer — 
you, and me ; nothing can better deserve the 
attention of a reasonable man. 

In faetj according as religion is found true 
or false, every thing changes in the practical 
direction of our life, in our ideas, in our most 
intim:ate and most important sentiments. 

Now, not only is it possible that religion is 
true, but there are many grave appearances in 
its favor, in the immense blessings of civiliza- 
tion which it has spread upon the earth, and in 
the respect which has been paid to it by so 
many men of every nation, eminent for their 
virtues and their genius, such as Bossuet, 
Fenelon, Saint Louis, Bayard, Duguesclin, 
Turenne, the great Conde, Napoleon, St. Vin- 
cent de Paul, St. Francis Xavier, St. Francis 
de Sales, and so many others.^ 

Let me, then, discuss the cause of religion 
with you. 

Believe me, you reject it only because you 
do not know it. As you represent it to your- " 
self, I can easily understand that it is distaste- 
ful to you. But do you represent religion to 
yourself as it really is? This is the whole 
question. Alas ! what prejudices, what strange 
errors exist with regard to it ! 

* To these we may add Columbus, Sir Thomas More, 
Daniel O^Connell, Claries Carroll, and a host of others, 
whose names are familiar to o*iir countrymen. 



TO OBJECTrOJ^S AaAi:^ST RELIGIOK-. 11 

It will not be difficult for me, my dear 
reader^ in these simple conversations, to shov/ 
you that these prejudices are mijust; that 
religion is not what they say it is j that not 
only is it not absurd, but that it is supremely 
reasonable, beautiful, and harmonious, and 
that it rests upon the most solid proofs. 

I am going to show yon that it is made for 
you, and that you are made tor it. 

If, like me, you saw it, every day— this holy 
religion, drying the tears of the poor, changing 
the most hardened hearts, arresting the pro- 
gress of evil, repairing injuries, softening 
hatred and dislikes, infusing everywhere resig- 
nation, truth, peace, hope, and joy into people's 
souls, you would soon alter your language, and 
I should have no need to press this subject 
upon you. 

But, unfortunately, this practical and ex- 
perimental proof of religion requires rather to 
be felt than heard of. It is experience, and 
not words, that makes us understand its invin- 
cible power. 

Permit me, however, before commencing our 
conversations, to choose, among a thousand 
touching incidents which present themselves 
to my mind, one fact, quite recent, and of 
which I can answer to you for the absolute 
truth, since I was a witness and almost an 
actor in the scene. It will speak, I think, in 



12 SHORT AKD FAMILIAR ANSWERS 

favor of my position more loudly tlian argu- 
ments* 

Four years ago, a poor sergeant condemned 
to death, awaited tlie execution of the fatal 
sentence, in the military prison of Paris. 

His crime was very great. He had killed, 
with premeditation, his lieutenant, in revenge 
tor having been threatened with some punish- 
ment by that officer. 

As chaplain of that prison, I saw the ser- 
geant Ilerbuel, and conveyed to him the con- 
sohitions of religiou. As he had already 
repented of his crime, he received them wil- 
lingly. On the second or third day after his 
sentence, he approached the Sacraments, and 
from that moment the man appeared to be 
entirely changed. 

''i^ow,*' he often said to me, "now I am 
happy. I am ready : let my good God do 
with me what he pleases. I enjoy perfect 
peace, I have no desire for life but to do 
penance.'" He confessed and received Holy 
Communion about every week. 

After he had been two months in prison, on 
the 1st of November,"^ it was notilied to him 
that his sentence would be put into execution. 
He heard the news with the calmness of a 
Christian. I was close beside him. His frame 
was shaken by a kind of convulsive trembling ; 

* In the year 1848. 



TO OBJECTIOXS AGAIXST EELIGIOX. 13 

but the soul vanquislied that yiolent emotion, 
and he maintained his peace of heart. " God's 
will be done ! " said he to the commandant ; 
" I confess I no longer expected it, after so 
long a delay ! " 

I remained alone with him. I received for 
the last time the avowal of his faults ; then I 
bore the holy Viaticum to him. 

He prayed all night, talking composedly 
from time to time with the two gendarmes 
wdio guarded him. 

The fatal carriage which was to transport tis 
to Vincennes arrived about six o'clock. Her- 
buel embraced the keeper of the prison, and 
the commandant ; no one could help weeping. 
I entered the van w^ith him. 

He w^as calm, and even gay, on his way to 
death. 

'^ Yon could not believe, sir," said he to me, 
" what a happy day I spent yesterday ! How 
happy I was ! It was a foretaste permitted by 
kind Providence. I knew it was All Saints' 
day : I prayed the whole time. In the even- 
ing I was perfectly happy, and so I am noio. 
No loords ean coowey to you the peace I felt 
during the past night : it was a joy of viJiich 
no idea can he fonnedP And he was going to 
meet death ! ! ! 

'i Death," added he, " has no longer any ter- 
rors for me. I know^ where I am going ; I am 
going to heaven, to the house of my Father ; 



14 SHORT AKD FAMILIAR ANSWERS 

I am going home. In a few moments I shall 
be there. I am a great sinner, the greatest of 
all sinners. I put myself the lowest of all ; I 
have offended God ; I have sinned — but God 
is good, and I have unbounded confidence in 
Him." 

And reading a prayer which reminded him 
of the Communion, " My God is there," be 
murmured, and he was full of joy. 

'' Oh ! " said he, again, ^' how firmly do I 
believe all the truths of the Church! Oh! 
how calm I feel ! . . . and what a great day 
THIS IS ! I shall soon be with God ! " And 
turning toward me with a smile, he said : '' My 
father, I shall await your coming ! I will come 
in my turn to welcome you, but I can do 
nothing." Then, collecting himself, he ex- 
claimed : ''I am nothing, God alone is all. 
All the peace which I feel is from Him, it 
comes from Him alone. ... I merit nothing ; 
I am a great sinner ! " 

He showed me his Christian rifiamial^ and 
said : ^' Soldiers ought always to have this little 
book, and never let it quit them. If I had 
read it all my life, I should not have done what 
I have done, I should not be where I am." 

We had arrived some time before at the 
plain of Vincennes. The moment of the 
execution drew near. I presented the crucifix 
to the poor convict : he took it from me with 
transport^ and looking upon it with inexpres- 



TO OBJECTIONS agai:n'st RELIGIO]^. 15 

sible tenderness, said : ^' My Saviour ! my 
Saviour ! Yes, there he is I dead for me ! 
and I, also^ am about to die with Thee I " 
And he kissed the holy image. 

All was ready. When we had alighted, 
Herbuel asked permission to give the word of 
command to fire ; it was granted to him. " I 

HAD THE COURAGE TO COMMIT THE CRIME," Said 
he, " I SHOULD ALSO HAVE COURAGE TO EXPIATE 
IT ! " 

He received, on his knees, a last blessing. 
He stood up before the soldiers whose duty it 
was to fire upon him. " Comrades/' said he, 
with a firm voice, ''' I die a Christian ! Behold 
the image of our Lord Jesus Christ ! See, all 
of you ; I die a Christian ! " And he showed 
them all the cross. " Do not do as I have 
done, but respect your superiors ! " ' 

I embraced him for the last time. . . . An 
instant afterward the terrible roll of the mus- 
ketry was heard. . . . and Herbuel appeared 
before that Grod who pardons all things to those 
who repent ! 

Tell me now, what think you of a religion 
which causes a great criminal to die in this 
way ? Is there not something in this to make 
you reflect I 



16 SHORT AI^D FAMILIAR ANSWERS 

IT. 

THERE IS NO GOD. 

Answer, Are you quite sure of that ? Who 
then has made the heavens and the earth, the 
sun, the stars, man, the world ? 

Did all these things create themselves? 
What would you say if some one were to show 
you a house, and tell you that it made itself? 
What would you say even if he pretended 
that it was possible ? That he was laughing 
at you — would you not ? or that he was mad ; 
and you would be quite right. 

If a house cannot make itself, how much 
less still the wonderful creatures which fill the 
universe, beginning with our own bodies, 
which are- the most perfect of all ! 

There is no God ! — Who told you so ? Some 
thoughtless fellow, no doubt, who had not seen 
God, and thence concluded that he did not 
exist. Is there nothing real but that which we 
can see, hear, touch, or feel ? Does not your 
thought, that is to say, your soul that thinks, 
exist ? It exists so really, and you know it so 
evidently, that no reasoning in the world could 
convince you to the contrary. Yet, have you 
ever seen, or heard, or touched your thought ? 
See, then, how absurd it is to say : There is no 
God, because I do not see Him. 



TO 0BJECTI01S"S AGAIKST RELIGIOiq'. 17 

God is a jf:?i^/'^ spirit^ that is, a being which 
cannot be brought under the material senses of 
our body, and which is only perceived by the 
faculties of the soul. — Our soul is also a- pure 
spirit : God has made it in his own image. 

They tell a story that, in the last century, 
when irreligion was the fashion, a man of talent 
supped one night with some pretended philos- 
ophers who spoke of God and denied his exist- 
ence. — As for him, he kept silent. 

The clock had just struck when his opinion 
was asked. He contented himself with point- 
ing to the clock with his finger and repeating 
those two lines so full of wit and good sense : — 

'*For mv part, more I tliink on't, less can I suppose 
That yon clock keeps good time, jet no watchmaker 
knows.'^ "^ 

The story does not tell what his friends re- 
plied. 

Another anecdote is related of the reply of 
a lady to a celebrated unbeliever of the Yoltai- 
rian school. He had endeavored ineffectually 
to convert her to his atheism. Mortified by 
her resistance: ^'I could not have believed," 
said he, " that in a reunion of people of talent, 
I should be the only one not to believe in 
God.'' 



* Pour ma part, plus j'y pense, et nioins je puis songer 
Que cette horloge marche et n' ait point d' horloger 



18 SHOKT AND FAMILIAR A^-SWERS 

" But you are not alone/^ replied the mis- 
tress of the house ; ^' my horses, iny spaniel, 
and my eat have also that honor ; only those 
poor beasts have the wit not to boast of it." 

In plain English, do you know what that 
boasting phrase, ^^ There is no God/' means ? 
Here is a faithful translation of it: /'I am a 
bad man, who am very much afraid that there 
is some one above who will punish me." 



III. 

WHEN OlSTE DIES, THERE IS AN El^TD OF EYERY- 

THINa. 

Answer. Tes, if you are speaking of cats, 
dogs, asses, canary-birds, &c. But you are 
very modest if you reckon yourself in the 
number. 

1st. You are a man, my friend, and not a 
beast. It is strange that it should be necessary 
to tell you so. You have a soul capable of 
reflecting, of doing good or evil, and that soul 
is immortal ; the beasts have none. 

That which makes man is the smd/ that is 
to say, that which thinks within us, that which 
causes us to recognise truth, and to love good. 
This is what distinguishes us from beasts. 
This is why it is so great an insult to say to 
any one : " You are a beast, you are an ani- 



TO OBJECTIOKS AGAHsTST RELIGION. 19 

mal," &c. It is to refuse to him his highest 
glory, that of being a man. 

To say then, " When I die there will be an 
end of me," is to say, '^I am a beast, a mere 
brute, an animal ! And what an animal ! I 
am not of so much value as my dog, for he 
runs faster, sleeps better, sees farther, has a 
more delicate sense of smell, &c., &c. ; or as 
my eat, who sees in the dark, who has no trou- 
ble about her apparel, &c. In a word, I am a 
very inferior beast, the least gifted of animals." 

If you like that, say it ; believe it, if you 
can; but allow us to be a little more proud 
than you, and to proclaim loudly, that we are 
vieii. 'Tis the least you can do. 

2d. What would the world come to if your 
assertion were true ? It would become a regu- 
lar den of infamy ! — good and evil, virtue and 
vice, would be nothing but idle words, or 
rather odious falsehoods ! 

Why, indeed, if, on one hand, I have nothing 
to fear in a future life, and if, on the other, I 
manage sufficiently well to have nothing to 
fear in this present one, why should I not steal, 
or murder, when it would serve my interests ? 
Why should I not give myself up to all the 
excesses of licentiousness I Why curb my 
passions? I have nothing to fear; my con- 
science is a lying voice, upon which I will im- 
pose silence* ... One thing only is worth my 



20 SHORT AXD PAMILIAR AXSWEE3 

attention ; that is, to avoid the police and the 
office!^ of jnstice. GckxI^ for me, as well as 
for every other sensible man, will be to elnde 
them successfully ; evil^ to fall into their 
clutches. 

" Wliat language ! " you say ; '^ a man must 
be mad to use it seriously/' 

Yery true. And vet, if there is an end of 
every thino; for us on the day of our death, I 
defy vou to o-ainsay this odious, this absurd 
language. 

If there be no future state, I defy you to 
show me in what St. Yincent of Paul is more 
worthy of our esteem than Dick Tui'pin ! ' 

Judge of the tree hy its fruits^ as we are 
taught by our own conunon sense, and by the 
Gospel. By horrible consequences, judge of 
the principle . . . And dare to repeat again, 
'* When we die there is an end of us ! " We 
shall know henceforth, what that means ! 

3d. While it is contrary to common sense, 
materialism is also contrary to the general and 
invincible sentiment of the whole human 
family. xUways and everywhere men have 
believed in a future state. Always and every- 
where the innocent who have been unjustly 
pei'secuted, the good man who has been un- 
fortunate, have looked forward to another life 
for the justice and happiness which were 
denied to them in this world ; always and 



TO OBJECTION'S AGAIKST EELIGIOIir. 21 

everywhere men have believed in a God who 
will be tlie avenger of unpunished crime ! 

In fine, alw^ays and everywhere men have 
prayed for the dead, have hoped to find those 
whom they loved beyond the tomb, and in a 
better world. 

" Why do you weep ? " said the dying Ber- 
nardin de Saint Pierre, to his wife and children. 
" That which you lose in me will live always. 
. . . It is but a momentary separation ; do 
not make it so painful . . . I feel that I am 
quitting only this earthy and not lifeP 

Such is the voice of conscience ; such is the 
voice, the sweet, the consoling voice of truth. 

Such also is the solemn language of Chris- 
tianity. It shows us the present life as a season 
of temporary trial, which God will crown with 
eternal happiness. It excites us to merit this 
happiness by self-sacrifice, and by the faithful 
performance of our duty. When his last 
hour approaches, the Christian yields up his 
soul to God wdth confidence, and to a pure, 
holy, and peaceable life, succeeds an eternity 
of joy! 

Far from ns then, far from our enlightened 
country, be this wretched materialism, w^hich 
would snatch from us such sublime hopes! 
Far from us those errors which degrade the 
heart, which destroy all that is good, all that is 
dear and worthy of respect in this world 1 



32 SHORT AJTB FAMILIAR A:N'SWERS 

Far from iis be the doctrine which leaves 
to the suffering and weeping poor^ to the inno- 
cent who are oppressed, nothing but despair 
for their inheritance ! 

The human conscience rejects such, a doc- 
trine with scorn ! 



EVERY THIKG IS GOVERKED BY CHANCE — 
OTHERWISE THERE WOULD KOT BE SO MUCH 
DISORDER ON EARTH. HOW MANY THINGS ARE 
rSELESS, IMPERFECT, BAD I IT IS CLEAR THAT 
GOD DOES NOT CONCERN HIMSELF ABOUT US. 

Answer.-—*'' Chance f " — And what is, then, 
this chance? It is an I kno70 not tvhat^ th^t 
nobody knows any thing about — which no one 
has ever been able to define— which is nothing ; 
a word devoid of sense, invented bj^ the im- 
pious, to replace the name, so dreaded by tliem, 
of Providence ; a more convenient sort of 
language, and which has the appearance of 
explaining things, but which, in fact, is but 
unmeaning nonsense. 

Chance governs nothing here on earth, be- 
cause it is itself nothing. God alone, the 
Sovereign Lord and only Creator of all beings, 
governs, watches over, and ordains all by His 
Providence ; that is to say, in His infinite 
wisdom, goodness, and justice. He conducts all 



TO OBJECTIONS AGAIN'ST RELIGION. 23 

in general, and each one individually, to their 
final end, by the means which He knows to be 
the most suitable. 

Just as He has created all things without an 
eflbrtj so does He preserve and govern them 
without becoming weary ; and it is no more 
unworthy of His greatness to concern Himself 
about all His creatures than to make them all. 

Those who say that God does not concern 
Himself about us, are very absurd, to say no 
worse, for it is as impossible to conceive God 
without Providence, as it would be to conceive 
light without splendor. It is impossible that 
an all-powerful God, knowing and seeing all 
things, should abdicate His Sovereign empire 
over His creatures, aud after having created 
theui, should not govern theiTj. It is impossible 
that a holy and just God, w^ho must necessarily 
desire good, and detest evil, should remain in- 
different to our actions, whatever they be, good 
or bad. 

JTow, that is Providence. God does for us 
what a father does for his children. He watches 
over us ; He teaches us what is right and what 
is wrong ; He shows us the right path which 
we must follow, the wrong one which we must 
avoid ; He punishes us when we disobey Him, 
and rewards us when we fulfill His holy will. 
When He does not do it in this world, He does 
it in that which is to come. What can be more 
simple ? 



24 SHOET AKD PAMILIAR, AKSWERS 

The idea of denying this Providence, this 
government of God, would never occur to us. 
if we did not imagine that we saw so much dis- 
order on earth. " Why," we often say, '^ is there 
so much that is useless ? Why so much that 
is bad ? Why is this one born poor, and the 
other rich ? why are there so many inequalities 
in the condition of mankind ? Why so many 
troubles and afflictions among some, and so 
much prosperity among others ? " To hear us 
talk, all is indeed in great confusion, and we 
would have ordered every thing far better. 

But who told us that what offends us so 
much is really confusion and disorder ? What ! 
do we judge a thing to be useless in the world 
because we do not know its use ? We think it 
is bad, because we do not know what it is good 
for. 

This is certainly a strange pretension ! If 
an ignorant person, not able to read, were to 
open a volume of Corneille, or Racine, and 
seeing so many unknown letters, arranged in 
a thousand different ways, united one to an- 
other, sometimes eight put together, sometimes 
six, at other times three, or seven, or two, so 
as to form words ; seeing several lines follow- 
ing one after the other, this one at the begin- 
ning of a page, that at the end of one; so 
many leaves arranged, one at the beginning of 
the book, another in the middle, another at the 
end ; perceiving some blank spaces, others cov- 



TO objectio:n'S again"st religion. 35 

ered with printiiig, liere capital letters, there 
small ones, &c.; if, I say, he were to see all 
this, of which he understands nothing, and he 
w^ere to ask, why these letters, these leaves, 
these lines are put in such a place sooner than 
in another, why that which is at the beginning 
is not in the middle, or at the end, why the 
twentieth page is not the fiftieth, &c., he would 
be told, '' My friend, it is a great poet, a man 
of genius, who has disposed all this so as to con- 
vey his thoughts : and if one page were put in 
the place of another, if one should transpose, 
not the lines only, but even the words or the 
letters, there would be disorder in this fine 
work, and the author's design would be de- 
stroyed." 

And if this ignorant person were to pretend 
to be well-informed, and undertook to criticise 
the order of this volume : if he were to say, 
for instance, " But it seems to me it would 
have been much better to put all the letters 
that have any resemblance together, the large 
with those of the same size, and the small sim- 
ilarly ; it would have been a far finer order 
had all the words been of the same length, and 
composed of the same number of letters ; why 
are some so short and others so long? &c. 
Why is there space here and none there ? It 
is all badly arranged ; there is no order in it. 
The person who has done it understands nothing 
of such things; all is left to chance." — We 



26 SHORT Aiq'D FAMILIAR ANSWERS 

should answer him, ''Ignorant tliat you are! 
It is you who understands nothing' of such 
things. If all were arranged according to your 
ideas, there would be neither sense nor reason 
in that book. All is right as it is. A far higher 
intelligence than yours presided over, and still 
presides over this arrangement of things ; and 
if you do not know the reason of it all, blame 
only your own ignorance." 

We are like this when w^e criticise the works 
of God ! 

It is His Great Book that we behold when 
we cast our eyes over the world. All the cen- 
turies are like its pages, that follow one after 
the other ; all the years are like the lines ; and 
ajl the different creatures, from angels and men 
down to the least blades of grass, and the 
minutest grains of dust, are the letters, dis- 
posed each in its own place by the hand of 
that great Compositor "Who alone is acquainted 
with His own eternal conceptions, and com- 
prehends the WHOLE of His work. 

If you ask why one creature is more perfect 
than another ; why this one is placed here, and 
that one there ; why winter is cold, and sum- 
mer hot ; why it rains now, and not at another 
time ; why this loss of fortune, of health ; why 
that sickness ; why that young child's death, 
while the old man near to it lives on ; why 
that good man is carried off by death, while the 
bad man who does nothing but evil is spared ; — 



TO OBJECTIOirS A^AI^ST KELlGIO:^". 2l 

I shall reply to you that an Infinite intelli- 
gence, an Infinite wisdom, an Infinite jnstice 
and goodness has thus regulated these things^ 
and that it is certain that all is in due order, 
although it may not seem so to us. 

I shall reply to you, that to judge a work 
correctly, you must know it entirely ; you 
must consider it as a whole, and in its details, 
and compare the means with the end which 
they ought to attain. Now, what man, what 
creature has ever shared the secret of the 
eternal counsels of the Creator ? 

That would be, above all, necessary in order 
to appreciate the wisdom and justice of Provi- 
dence with regard to reasonable ^aidifree men, 
destined to immortal life, capable of doing 
good and evil, capable of merit and demerit. 

Sometimes, accommodating himself to our 
weakness, Grod deigns to justify Himself in 
this world by results which are either consoling 
or terrible. There is no age which has not 
witnessed these signal marks of the divine 
goodness or justice ; crimes, which have been 
concealed with diabolical art, are brought to 
light by the most unlooked for, the most ex- 
traordinary means ; audacious blasphemers are 
struck down at the very moment when they 
are defying that invisible God in whom they 
do not believe. In 1848, during the elections 
of the constituent assembly in the neighbor- 
hood of Tonlouse, an impious demagogue was 



2B SHOET AI^D FAMILIAR Ali^SWERS 

haranguing the peasant electors, seeking to 
destroy in their minds all respect for religion, 
that ever formidable obstacle to the projects of 
the wicked. 

The orator attacked all belief, even denying 
the existence of God. " Let Him speak, then,'- . 
he cried, pointing with his clenched hand 
toward heaven, " let Him speak, if He hears 
me ! " 

He had not finished speaking, when a ter- 
rible thunder-clap bursts forth, and strikes 
down the blasphemer in the midst of the awed 
crowd ! He w^as supposed to be dead, but he 
recovered his senses after a lapse of two hours. 
I doubt if afterwards he ever demanded fresh 
proofs of the existence of God. 

Another wretch, more culpable, no doubt, 
was struck more terribly still, in 1849, at a 
little village near Caen. It was on a Sun- 
day during mass. This man was with one 
of his friends at a public house, near the 
church. The sound of the bells aroused his 
fury. After a thousand fearful blasphemies 
against religion and against the priests, seizing 
his glass, and standing up before his com- 
panion and the landlord, who vainly tried to 
calm him ; " If there is a God," he exclaims, 
" let him prevent me from drinking my glass 
of wine ! " and he fell at the same instant, 
struck dead by apoplexy ! One might add 
innumerable instances of this kind, of Divine 



TO OBJECTIONS AGAIN^ST RELIGIOIS'. 29 

justice sliown forth in this world. These are 
but specimens, pledges, as it were, of that jus- 
tice which is to come. 

God bestows also tokens of His providence 
upon the just. How much misery is assuaged 
against all expectation ! How often do we 
find that we have served as instruments of 
the Divine goodness ! The poor, and those 
trae Christians who succor the poor, are at 
hand to vouch for this. Their life is like an 
acting providence; it is a living proof of 
Providence. 

Whj then does not God always justify in 
this manner. His justice, goodness, and holi- 
ness? The reason is simple enough. It is 
that this present life is but the germ, the be- 
ginning of all that which relates to us, and 
that the consummation of God's work in us is 
more fitly to be looked for in eternity, where, 
alone, we attain to the perfect development of 
our being. It is that this present life is the 
season of faith which believes without seeing, 
which believes, notwithstanding appearances 
are against it, that which will be one day 
revealed to its sight when the veil shall be 
lifted. 

We must never lose sight of Eternity, when 
we are forming a judgment of human affairs. 
It is the great restorer of order out of the 
apparent confusion of this world. " Why," it 



30 SHORT AKD I'AMILlAIi AKSWEBS 

is said, " does not God piinisli this great crim- 
inal ? Why is that wicked man loaded with 
prosperity, and that good man overwhelmed 
with misfortmie ? What care does God bestow 
upon these things? Where is His justice? 
Where is His wisdom ? Where His goodness ? 

Behold Eternity, which explains the mys- 
tery ! It was just and wise to recompense, by 
the transient prosperity of this world, the little 
good done on earth by that impious man, that 
great sinner, whom eternity was to punish. 
And those good men, reputed by the world so 
unhappy, paid, by transient afflictions, the 
penalty chie to the minor sins, which, in their 
human weakness, they had committed ; a 
happy eternity was the recompense of their 
virtue ! 

It is hy the standard of Eternity that toe 
raust estimate all that hajppens to man in this 
world. Without it, it is impossible to under- 
stand any thing of the designs of God in 
regard to us. 

Let us, then, reform our manner of viewing 
things. Let us no more judge our Mighty 
Judge. Neither you nor I, rely upon it, are 
as far sighted as He is. 

What He does is well done, and if He per- 
mits evil to be done, it is always for a greater 
good. 

Don't you remember the gardener of the 
fable ? He was busy in his garden, and hap- 
pened to be near a large gourd. 



TO OBJECTIO]srS AGAINST EELIGION. 31 

*' The Maker ! " cries he, " of what did he dream ? 
That gourd he has very ill placed. 

For me, I'd have hung it up there, 

Upon one of those oaks in the air ; 
That Vv^ould have been more to my taste. 
Like fruit and like tree ! as to me it doth seem. 
'Tis a pity, good Garo, thou hadst not, to teach, 
Been present with Him whom the curate doth preach ; 
Twere all so much better contrived: marry, come 
Yon acorn, which is not so big as my thumb, 

In the place of the gourd Fd suspend. 
God made a mistake ; and the more I attend 
To these fruits so ill placed, more it seems to Garo, 

That here is a plain quiproqiioy 

It was a warm day ; friend Garo was hot 
and tired ; he seeks the shade of one of the 
neighboring oaks and lies down at the foot of 
it. He was just beginning to sleep, when an 
acorn drops off and, from the top of the tree, 
falls straight upon his nose. Garo, waking up 
with a start, cries out, and seeing the cause of 
what had befallen him : — 

'' Oh ! oh ! " he cries, " I bleed ! And where would I be, 
If a heavier mass from the top of the tree 
Had come down, and this acorn, a gourd it had been ! 
God thought it not fit ; without doubt he was right ; 
And the reason is now very plain to my sight.'' 
And praising the goodness of God with his might. 
Good Garo returned his own cottage within. 

Do you act like this worthy gardener, and, 
far from denying a Divine Providence, be care- 
ful never even to murmur against its decrees. 



33 SHORT AND FAMILIAR ANSWERS 



RELIGION IS A YERY GOOD THING FOR WOMEN. 

Answer. And why not, then, for men ? 

Either religion is true or it is false. If it is 
true, it is as true (and consequoDtly as good) 
for men as for women. If it is false, it is no 
better for women than for men ; because false- 
hood is not good for any one. 

Yes, certainly, '^ religion is a Yery good thing 
foi women," but also, and for the same reasons, 
it is good for men. 

Like women, men haYO passions, often Yery 
violent ones, to struggle against; and like 
women, men cannot conquer them without the 
fear and the love of God, without those power- 
ful means that religion alone can furnish them 
with. 

For men, as well as women, life is full of 
difficult and painful duties ; duties toward God, 
toward society, toward their families, toward 
themselves. 

For men as for women, there is a God to 
worship and to serve, an immortal soul to 
save, vices to shun, virtues to practise, a para- 
dise to gain, a hell to avoid, a final judgment 
to fear, an ever-menacing death to be prepared 
to meet. 

For one sex, the same as for the other, Christ 



TO objectio:n^s agai:n^st religio:n". 33 

died on the cross, and His commandments 
regard them both alike. 

Eeligion is, then, as good for men as for 
women, and if there is a difierence, it is that it 
is even more indispensable to men than to 
women. They are, in fact, exposed to more 
dangers, they can do wrong more easily, and 
they are more surrounded by bad examples, 
particularly as regards loose morals, intemper- 
ance, and the neglect of religious duties. 

Eeligion is good for every one. It is espe- 
cially necessary for those who say it was not 
intended for them. 

The more need one has of it, the less one 
desires it. 



Yl, 



IT IS ENOUGH TO BE AK H0:N"EST MAK ; 
THAT IS THE BEST KELIGI0:N' OF ALL, AND IT 
IS ENOUGH. 

Answer. Yes ; to escape hanging ; but not 
to go to Heaven. Yes : — in the sight of men : 
— in the sight of God, the sovereign Judge- 
No ! 

1st. " It is enough to be an honest man," 
you say. Be it so then ; but let us understand 
each other. What do you call an honest man f 
3 



34 SHORT AKD FAMILIAR ANSWERS 

That is an expression whicli appears to me 
very elastic, remarkably convenient, and whicli 
is capable of accommodating itself to many 
and varied tastes. 

Ask some licentious young man, for instance, 
if it is possible to be an honest man while 
leading the more than dissipated life that he 
does ? '' What a question ! " he vvdll reply ; 
^'the follies of youth do not prevent one's 
being called an honest man. Undoubtedly, I 
claim to be considered such, and I should like 
to see the person who would dispute my title 
to it ! " 

Then turn to the covetous tradesman, who 
sets oif his goods of inferior quality, and sells 
them as if they w^ere first-rate ; to the artisan 
who works but half as diligently when he is 
paid by the day as he does when he is paid by 
the job; to the master who takes advantage of 
hard times to rob liis workmen of their Sun- 
day's repose; ask all these persons if what 
they thus do prevents their being really honest 
people f And not one of them will hesitate 
to reply that he is an honest man, and that 
these little artifices, these tricks of trade, have 
nothing to do with the question. 

Ask, once more, that spendthrift, if his 
prodigality, — that miser, if his avarice, — that 
frequenter of the public house, if his drunken- 
ness — destroys his honesty f Each will claim 
indemnity for his besetting passion, while he 



TO OBJECTIONS AGAIKST RELIGION. 35 

calls himself an honest, nay a very honest, 

man ! 

Thus from the admissions even of the hon- 
est persons of whom we are here treating, men 
who are dissipated, dishonest, given to intem- 
perance, miserly, usurious, prodigal, dissolute, 
may be honest men^ and no one can refuse them 
the title, provided they have not stolen any 
money, or committed any murders ! ! 

Don't you think this i;low morality is very- 
con venient ? Whoever is not trocght before 
the assize court will never have any account to 
render to God I In fact, ono niu^^t no longer 
examine the heart, to judge persons' characters, 
but the shoulder, and wh^jever has not the con- 
vicffs brand is to be reputed lit for Heaven ! ! 

What a religion, then, is the honest man\s 
religion ! And you say that it is your religion ! 
and the best of all religious ! One which per- 
mits every thing short of rol^bery and murder ! ! 
But you do not reflect upon it. It is a perver- 
sion of ideas, and an atrocious doctrine, and^ 
no religion at all. 

2dly. ^' But," you say, '' I mean more by an 
honest man than is usually meant. I call him 
an HONEST MAN 'inho fulfils all his duties^ loho 
does good and shuns eml^ 

And I, on the other hand, reply, and I affirm 
it, supported by experience, that if you are 
such a man without the powerful aid of religion, 



36 SHORT AKD FAMILIAR ANSWERS 

yon are an eiglith wonder of the world ; bnt I 
would stake my life that you are no snch thing. 
For yon cannot make me believe that you 
have no passions — no disorderly inclinations ; 
all men have them, an I inaiiy of them. If, 
then, you are natnraliy iiicliiied to licentious- 
ness, to gluttony, or Gei^sual pleasures, what 
will restrain you ? If you are inclined to idle- 
ness, to violence, to pridj^^ what will moderate 
these passions ? Wliat will refrain your arm, 
what will bridle your tongue ? The fear of 
God ? But there is no question of that in the 
honest man's reliir-<^>n. The voice of reason? 
We know what reason can do in a combat with 
a violent passion. What then ? I can see 
nothing but the fear of the police, mere brute 
force. A noble religion this, truly ! I con- 
gratulate you upon it — but I prefer my own. 

The Christian religion alone offers eiBcacious 
remedies for our passions, and opposes a suffi- 
cient check upon their extravagances. Unless 
you admit that a man cannot sin, that he is an 
angel, (which he is not,) we must necessarily 
infer that without the powerful aids that Chris- 
tianity furnishes us with, we cannot be con- 
stantly faithful to all the great duties^ the 
observlnfi of which constitutes the truly honest 
wan. Without Christianity we cannot, above 
all, fulfil them with that uprightness of inten- 
tion which makes all their moral beauty. 



TO OBJECTIONS AGAINST RELIGION. 37 

The most virtuous Christians (such is the 
weakness of mankind, from which you pretend 
to be exempt) — the most virtuous Christians 
fail from time to time in their duty, in spite of 
the superhuman strength which they draw 
from faith. And you who are deprived of this 
all-powerful check, abandoned to your natural 
inclinations, exposed to the countless dangers 
of the world, you pretend to be always faithful 
to yours ! 

I affirm v/ith certainty that the man who, 
not being a Christian, calls himself an honest 
man^ (in the sense we have just indicated,) 
either is under a most palpable delusion, or 
else lies to his conscience. 

3dly. I will go further. Supposing even 
that I were to see you perfectly fulfilling your 
duties of citizen^ father, husband, son, friend, 
in a word, all those duties which make the 
honest man^ according to the world's definition, 
I should say still : " That is not enough ! " 

No; t/uit is not enoagh. — And why? Be- 
cause there is a God who reigns in the Heavens, 
who has created you, who preserves you, who 
calls you to Himself, who imposes a fixed law 
upon you, which no one has the power to 
annul. — Because you have duties toward this 
great God, of adoration, of thanksgiving, of 
prayer, as strict, as necessary, and even more 
essential, more imprescriptible than your duties 
toward your fellow-creatures. 



3S SHOUT AND FAMILIAR ANSWEKS 

Can a man, who lias treated some friend with 
ingr^ititude^ say to himself^ '^ 1 am a good man^ 
I h.ivo nothiiig to reproach mys^^^if with'^" — 
No, certainly 1 — ^Well^ then ; you — honest man, 
according to tlie worid — are guihy of ingrati- 
tude toward God in forgetting liim ! He is 
your father^ yon owe to "him your beings your 
life, your intelHgenee, your moral dignity^ the 
liealth yon enjoy^ the goods of this world, all 
in fact ; He has ereatecl the universe for you, 
for your use^ for your enjoyment.^ — He has him- 
self taught you His law, He has saved you. He 
prepares for you in Heaven eternal happiness. 
— He is your Lord ; He is your master ; He 
gives you Plis blessing; He pardons you; He 
loves you ; He waits for you ! . 

And what do you give Him in exchange ? 
How much love, i^espeet, homage I You coldly 
discuss the pretexts that have been invented by 
His enemies to ¥/ithdraw you from His service I 
You perhaps have nothing but sarcasms^ hatred, 
contempt, for every thing that pertains to his 
worship ! You do not pray to Him. You do 
not adore Him. You do not give thanks to 
Him. You jest at faith in His word, at the 
observance of His laws 1 ! 

Ungrateful that you are ! And you have 
nothing to reproach yourself with I And you 
fulfil. ALL your duties f . . . . 

Cease, I beg you, to cherish this illusion t 



TO OBJECTIOKS AGAINST RELIGION. 39 

Of what use is it to deceive one's self? Of 
what use to disguise one's taults ? 

Rather acknowledge that the yoke of religion, 
that is, of duty, alarms you, and that it is to re- 
lease yourself from it with -decorum that you 
have imagined this rdighii of the Jumest man. 

Not only is it not enough^ but it is, to say 
truth, only a well-sounding plirase, empty of 
meaning and intended to palliate in our own 
eyes and those of the world, the disorders and 
weaknesses for which the practice of Christian- 
ity is the sole remedy. 



MY RELIGIOIQ' IS TO DO GOOD TO OTHERS, 

Answer. Nothing can be better. It is just 
what tho Christian religion most pi^essingly' 
commands us to do ; even assimilating this duty 
to that higher and more fundamental one of 
loving God: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy 
Ood with all thy heart,'' we ai-^ told is the 
first commandment. And the second, lohich is 
like ^mix) the first^ is this, ^' Thou slialt love 
thy neighbor as thyself" 

These are the very words of Jesus Christ (St. 
Matthew, ch. xxii.) but He adds something of 
which you do not take heed. '' Upmi these 
TWO commandments hangs all the law." 

You^ whose religion consists, you say, only in 



40 SHORT AHD FAMLIAR AKSWERS 

doing good to others^ yon suppress one. of the 
two commandments, the chief one, from which 
the other generally springs, which develops and 
nourishes it, and alone raises it up to heroism, 
and to the height of 2f, religious duty, — the 
commandment of the love of God^ and the ob- 
ligation of servmg Him. 

We must have the use of loth legs to vvalk, 
must we not ? Jast so, to fulfil our destiny on 
earth and reach heaven, w^e must practise both 
the gi^eat commandments : — : 

1. Thou shalt love thy God. 

2. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. 
Therefore, the second is rarely observed 

where the first is neglected ; the experience of 
nineteen centuries proves this. Those Chris- 
tians who rest the love of their fellow-creatures 
on the love of God are the only ones who love 
them truly ^ efficacioudy y purely ^ and con- 
stantly. 

Who have been the greatest benefactors of 
.suffering humanity ? 2'/ie Saints^ that is, men 
whose hearts w^ere inflamed with the love of 
God. 

, To cite but one of these, look at St. Yincent 
de Paul, that hero of brotherly charity, that 
father of the afflicted, wdio continues even in 
these times to do good all over the world by 
means of the benevolent institutions he founded ! 
Who w^as Yincent de Paul ? A priest, a church- 
man ! What was the source of his unexampled 



TO OBJECTIONS AGAINST KELIGION. 41 

devotion of his fellow-creatnres ? The love of 
God, the practice of Christ's religion. 

What are the institutions of benevolence 
which prosper most, (not to say which alone 
prosper) ? 

What are those which live, which develop 
themselves, and endnre through all ages ? 
Those which the Church founds ; thoso which 
rest on a religious idea, which are crowned by 
the cross of Jesus Christ ! 

Who founded hospitals ? The Church. 

Who gave refuge in all times, — who, in our 
days, despite the obstacles wln'ch blinded gov- 
ernments have raised up, — still gives refuge to 
every kind of misery, whether of the body, or 
•the soul, of infancy, manhood, or old age ? The 
Church. 

Who has founded, for the relief of each of 
these miseries, religious orders of men and wo- 
men, some devoted to foundlings, some to the 
education of the poor, some to the nursing of 
the sick, others to the care of lunatics, to the 
reclaiming of criminals, to sheltering the weary 
traveller, &c. &c. &c. ? The Church, and the 
Church alone. 

It is she who gives birth to the most perfect 
devotedness to humanity ; she produces the 
sister of charity^ as she produces the viission- 
ary and the monk of SL Bernard! Always 
by m9an3 of the love of God, as the most solid 
foundation of the love of mankind. 



43 SHORT A'ND FAMILIAR ANSWERS 

In the present age, more than ever, we hear 
much said about humanity, fraternity, the love 
of the poor. Systems are built up ; line words 
cost nothing ; books are published and speeches 
are made. Why have they all so little result? 
Because religion does not vivify these efforts. 
No effect can subsist without its cause ; the 
cause, the most fertile principle of brotherly 
charity, is Divine charity, or the love of God. 

Distrust these fine systems of fraternity, then, 
which are independent of religion. There is 
no love of our fellow-creatures, ^;v^/v^, efficacious^ 
solid J or durable^ that is not founded in Jesus 
Christ. 

VIII. 

RELIGION, INSTEAD OF SPEAKING SO MUCH OF 
THE LIFE TO COME, OUGHT RATHER TO OCCUPY IT- 
SELF WITH THE PRESENT ONE, AND DESTROY 11^ 
MISERY. 

Answer. Religion speaks much of the life 
to come, because that life, being eternal, is of 
vast importance, and is much more worthy than 
the present life, that we should be occupied 
with it. It is there, in fact, that is to be de- 
cided for ever the great question of happiness 
or misery ; on earth Vv^e do but prepare its solu- 
tion. 

Bat if she speaks a great deal of the life 
eternal, Relisrion is far from ne^^'lectin^ the life 



TO OBJECTIONS AGAIIS^ST KELIGION. 43 

of this present world. All the interests of 
man are present to her ; his soul, his body, his 
transitory life, his future and unchangeable 
life ; she forgets nothing. 

If she does not completely destroy the mis^ 
eries of life, it is because those miseries cannot 
1)6 (hstroj/ed ; and they cannot be destroyed 
because the causes whicli produce them cannot 
be suppressed. 

Of these, the first is the inequality of phy- 
sical strength, of bodily health, of talents, 
intelligence, and energies in men. — If, in con- 
sequence of an accident, or simply from the 
effect of old age, I lose the strength necessary 
for pursuing my trade or occupation, shall I 
not fall into misery? — If, in spite of all my 
efforts, I am so unskilful as not to be able to 
work as well as my fellow-workmen, will not 
my customers prefer to deal with those who 
excel me ; and shall I not fall into misery ? — 
Yet, who can guarantee us from sickness, 
accidents, or old age ? Who can give talent to 
those who have it not ? Who can render all 
men equal in strength, in intellect, in willing- 
nsss? . . . See, then, here a fertile source of 
misery, and one which it is impossible even for 
religion to destroy. 

The second cause of human misery, not less 
profound than the first, arises from the vices 
incidental to our feeble nature, corrupted by 



44 SHOUT AKD FAMILIAR ANSWERS 

sin ; idleness, licentiousness, drunkenness, in- 
ordinate love of pleasure, revenge, pride, &c. 

Among a hundred poor persons, how man^^ 
are unhappy through tJieir own faults ! Nine- 
teen out of twenty. They accuse heaven, 
when they ought only to accuse themselves. 
The good poor soon hnd help ; God and the 
faithful children of God never abandon them ! 

Poverty, like sickness and death, is the pun- 
ishment of sin. It is impossible to destroy it ; 
for it is impossible to destroy original sin, 
which is an established fact, and to render 
man impeccable. But that which is possible, 
and which religion performs admirably, is to 
lessen misery, to relieve and soften its pangs, 
to render it supportable, in fine, to sanctity it. 

Keligion reveres^ in the body, the temple of 
that hnmortal soul, which is itself the living 
temple of God. She exerts herself to heal, to 
prevent even, all these afflictions, by the num- 
berless charitable institutions, the asylums of 
every kind, which abound in the Christian 
world. 

Wherever her voice is listened to, the rich 
man becomes the friend, the brother, and often 
the servant of the poor. He pours forth joy- 
fully his superfluity into the lap of the 
afflicted. The poor man in his turn, learns to 
hope. He learns, in the school of Jesus 
Christ, to endure with patience, and some- 
times he even attains so high as to love sutler- 



TO OBJECTIONS AGAINST RELIGION. 45 

ings, which he knows are destined, in the 
adorable designs of his heavenly Father, to 
prove his fidelity, to purify him of his faihngs, 
to render him more like to his poor and cruci- 
fied Saviour, and to lay up for him ineffable 
treasures of happiness m the eternal Country t 
. . . How many good poor have I not seen 
thank God for their sufi[erings, and rejoice in 
their privations ! 

Eeligion, therefore, does just what she ought, 
by occupying herself with our happiness in 
this life, but occupying herself a great deal 
more with the life to come. 

None have any cause to complain of religion. 
Let the rich become good Christians, and con- 
sequently charitable ; and the poor become 
good Christians, and consequently patient and 
resigned ; this is the secret of happiness. 



IX. 

WE OL^GHT TO ENJOY LIFE ; WE MUST HAVE A 
GOOD TIME OF IT ; GOD IS TOO GOOD TO HAVE 
CKEATED US FOR ANY THING BUT HAPPINESS. 

Answer. Oh, yes! God, in His goodness, 
has only created us to make us happy ! But 
the great point is not to misunderstand what 
HAPPINESS is. 

You seek happiness. You are right. But 
beware of deceiving yourself in the choice of 



46 SHOM AKD FAMILIAR AKSWEHS 

your means for attaining it ! Many roads lie 
open before you ; one only is the right road 
. . . woe be to him who takes a wrong one ! ! 
» • • » 

It is a mistake more easy to make at the 
present day than ever ; foi' never, I think, has 
our country been more inundated with lying 
doctrines on this subject* Wicked or dehided 
men diffuse on all sides, and through the many 
channels which the press affords, doctrines 
which, flattering human passions, easily pene- 
trate into the minds of the people. 

They would fain persuade us that we are 
only placed here on earth for the purpose of 
enjoj^meiit ; that all hopes of a future life are 
but chimeras ; that happiness consists in mate- 
rial prosperity, in money, and the means of 
enjoyment which money can procure. Such is 
the doctrine oi mere pleasure. 

It is the doctrine which is at this moment 
striving to gain the mastery over Christianity, 
and to materialize happiness. In the last cen- 
tury it was called Ph ilosophj ; in our times it 
is called Commukism, FouPwIerism, Socialism, 
&c.^ 

* The funclaraental principle of these systems is the 
same, as regards morality ; they differ only in some de- 
tails of their application, by no means esssntial. 

This doctrine, as professed by the learned, is called 
Pantheism, The morality of Pantheism is the same as 
that of Communism. It is Communism talking Latin 
and dressed up as a x^edagogue and a pedant. 



TO 0BJi:CTI0:!^3 AaA.I\"3T RELIGION. 47 

I will not insult you by attemi)ting to prove 
that such liapplness is of a dcgradlny kind. It 
is sufficiently obvious. All that distinguishes 
113 from tli3 brute creation, goodness, virtue, 
self-devotion, moral order, it annihilates. Man 
no longer diiTers from his dog except exter- 
nally ; h((.pj)hiess for both is the same, the 
satisfaction of all their inclinations, mere brute 
enjoyment ! 

But th3 point on which the world is not yet 
convinesd, and to which I would direct your 
attention, is the 'practical hnpossibilitii of the 
comm:inist doctrine, the absurdity of this uni- 
versal happiness.' 

I want to make you feel its ahsolute ojjpo-^ 
sit ton to the Qjaiural ord(^r of things^ to exist"- 
imj facts ^ which no tiring can change ; and to 
convince you that such a system is nothing but 
a dream, a dangerous and ridiculous Utopia, 
and that under the fine words with v/hich it 
arrays itself, tliere is no tiring. 

If there is a iact that is proved, and as clear 
as the light of the sut, it is, without contradic- 
tion, the sad necessity we are under, here be- 
lovf, of suiiering and dying ; this is the condi- 
tion of man in Vv^hat is essential to it on earth ; 
it is the condition in Vv^hich I am, in which you 
are, in which our fathers were and our chil- 
dren will be, and no human efforts can extri- 
cate us from it. 

Are there not, I as-:, here belovv', and will 



48 SHORT AKD FAMILIAR AKSWERS 

there not alwayf^^ alwccTjs^ alwayshe^ sicknesses, 
suiFerings, afflictions ? Are there not, and will 
there not always be widows and orphans? — 
mothers weeping inconsolably beside the 
empty cradle of the child ? 

Are there not, and w^ill there not always be 
struggles between temperaments opposed to 
each other ? — collisions of wills ? — deep decep- 
tions ? 

Can any thing change this state of things ? 
Will any new organization of society^ what- 
ever IT BE, preserve ns from diseases, suffering, 
consumption, fever, govit, cholera ? — preserve 
us from losino; those wdiom we love ? . . . 
Will it prevent the disagreeable variations of 
the seasons, the rigor of winter's cold, the 
burning heat of summer ? . . . Will it free 
man from his tendencies to vice ? from pride, 
egotism, violence, hatred ? Will it, above all, 
prevent his dying ? 

Is all this true, or is it not ? And is it not 
as certain, as indubitable, that it is^ as it is 
certain that it will oZioays he the state of 
things ? One must be crazy to deny it ! 

And what becomes — pray tell me — in pres- 
ence of this fact — what becomes, in the midst 
of so many inevitable evils, of that consta^nt 
enjoyynent^ that perfect terrestrial happi- 
ness which Communism promises us ? The 
mere approach of sickness, sorrow, and death, 



TO OBJECTION'S AGAINST RELIGION. 4:9 

suffices to destroy it ! . . . And these terrible 
foes are ever at our door. 

Your Communism, or Socialism, then, (give 
it what name you please,) is a dream, a vain 
Utopia, contrary to the nature of things. 

It cheats itself, then, or it cheats me, v^hen 
it promises to me the repose of perfect happi- 
ness on earth, where such cannot exist, and 
when it makes it consist in an impossible state 
of enjoyment. 

I must, therefore, seek for happiness else- 
where, for that it is somewhere to be found I 
know ; the wisdom, the goodness, the power 
of God, are a sure guarantee of this to me. . . . 

Where, then, am I to seek it ? — There, 
where Christianity points it out to me : in the 
germ here on earthy hut in its perfection i7i 
Heaven. 

Christianity — it is in perfect accordance with 
the great fact of our mortal condition. It 
explains to us the formidable problem of suf- 
fering and happiness. 

It embraces man in all his relations, and 
takes him just as he is by nature , it takes ac- 
count of the essential facL^ which Communism 
ignores, (such as original degradation, the sen- 
tence of perpetual penance, the Redemption 
of Jesus Christ, the necessity of imitating the 
Saviour, so as to have a share in that redemp- 
tion, the eternal life which awaits us, &c.) It 



50 SHOET AJTD FAMILIAK ANSWERS 

does not deal in airy reasonings, based on 
chimerical suppositions, like Communism. 

Communism discerns in us notliing but the 
outside shell t it forgets the kernel, which is 
the soul. — Christianity does not forget the 
shell, that is the body ; but it also perceives 
the kernel, and it finds that the kernel is of 
more value than the shell. — It refers every 
thing to the soul, to eternity, to God. 

By means of an influence as gentle as it is 
powerful, it cleanses the soiil little by little of 
its pride, its cupidity, its concupiscence ; its 
excesses, its selfishness ; in a word, of all its 
vices ; and it thus penetrates to the deepest 
roots of the greater number of those evils that 
we have just enumerated. In fact, our trou- 
bles, in most cases, spring from our passions ; 
and these passions, Christianity calms them, it 
restrains their vehemence, it tames them. 

It communicates to the heart that joy, that 
peace so sweet, which purity of conscience 
produces. 

~^aith shows us clearly the path which leads 
lo happiness; hope and love make us run in 
that path, and render light and pleasant the 
yoke of duty. 

If it does so much for the soul, it (Chris- 
tianity) does not forget the h(u/f/. We have 
described above the cares which it bestows 
upon it. 

It occupies itself with it, not as with the 



TO OBJECTIONS AGAII^ST RELIGIO^sT. 51 

cliief and master, (that would be disorder,) 
but as with the confederate and companion. 
It preserves it by sobriety and chastity ; sanc- 
tifies it by external worship, by participation 
in the sacraments, and, above all, by a nnion 
with the sacred body of Jesns Christ in the 
Eucharist. 

It receives its dying breath ; it accompanies 
it with honor to its final resting-place ; and 
even there does not bid it an eternal adieu. 
It knows that, one day, that Christian body, 
purified by the baptism of death, will come 
forth radiant from its dust, will revive in glory, 
will be reunited to the soul, and enjoy with it, 
in Paradise, ineffable delights ! . . . 

Such is Christianity. 

It understands what happiness is, promises 
it, and confers it. It confers on earth that 
happiness v/hich is possible on earth. If it 
does not give unalloyed happiness, it is be- 
cause such ought not to be given, and cannot, 
hers below. 

It rests its promises on the most irrefragable 
proofs. That which he does not now possess, 
the Christian kiiowSj is sure he will possess 
hereafter. 

Therefore, every true Christian is happy. 
He has trouble, sorrow ; ... it is impossible 
to be free from them here; but his heart is 
ever filled, ever calm and content. 

Does Communism thus treat the poor wan- 



53 SHOKT AKD FAMILIAR ANSWERS 

derers whom it amuses with its chimeras ? It 
promises what no human power can give ; it 
promises the impossible, ... It has no other 
guarantees than the audacious affirmations of 
its chiefs ; and those chiefs, are they calculated 
to inspire confidence ? 

" The vrorld will be happy," they say, '' ichen 
every t/ihvj is dtangcdy Yes ; hut when imll 
evertj tinny he changed? If, as ^ve believe we 
have proved, this change is contrary to the 
nature of things^ the world runs a great risk 
of never findino; happiness. 

Communism is something like the wily bar- 
ber, who put over his shop-door : 

^'To-morrow, shaving gkatis liere ! " 

To-morrow remained always to-morrow. 

Communism* desires the recompense without 
the labor ; the Christian desires the recom- 
pense after the labor. 

Tii3 one talks like Avorkraen of bad charac- 
ter, the other like good workmen. Thus every 
goocl-for-nothing, every lazy fellow, v/illingly 
adopts the Communist doctrines, and instinc- 
tively rejects the voice of religion. 

Lot our country, therefore, bewnre of these 
hollow bat seductive promises, with Vvhich her 
enemies fill their newspapers, novels, and 
pamphlets. 

Lot her reject such promises ; let her pun- 



TO OBJECTIOKS AGAINST RELIGIOiT. 53 

ish, by a just contempt, the men who are 
'not ashamed to propose to their brethren 
the ignoble happiness of brutes — mere enjoy- 
ment. 

Let us raise our heads; let us revive our 
torpid faith ; let us again be Christians ! There 
alone is the remedy for all our evils. Let ns 
learn to understand, like our fathers, those 
divine lessons which the GEEAT MASTER 
has left to us on the snbject of happiness. 

Blessed (n^e the poor in spivH^ (that is to 
say, those v^hose spirit is detached from the 
fragile goods of the world), said He,/i9/' tlieirs 
is the ki.nydom of heaven ! 

Blessed are the meek and the joeacema.Jcers^ 
for tlteji sJiall he called the children of God ! 

Blessed are they who moxirn^for they shall 
he comforted. ! 

Blessed a^re the merciful^ for they shall oh- 
tain mercy ! 

Blessed are the pure of hearty for they shall 
see God! 

Let us instruct our minds, and imbue them 
with this Catholic religion, which has made 
France what it is ; let us infuse its spirit into 
our hearts, our maimers, our institutions, and 
our lav/s ! . . . We shall enjoy the luippiness 
which is possible in this world, and the haj)- 
pin ess which is perfect in the world to 
come ! 

He who desires more than this is a madman. 



54 SHORT AND FAMILIAR ANSWERS 

who will never enjoy either the one or the 
other."^ 



THE APOSTLES AND EARLY CHRISTIANS W^ERE 
COMMUNISTS. THEY WERE POOR, AND HAD ALL 
THINGS IN COMMON ; THEY WERE PURSUED AND 
HUNTED DOWN BY THE CIVIL AUTHORITIES, JUST 
AS THE COMMUNISTS ARE. 

Answer. " Or^ just as inalef actors are^'^ 
you might add. And that is enough to show 
you where your reasoning fails. 

And tell me, since when does it suffice to be 
poor, to have things in common, to be pursued 
and imprisoned, in order to be a Christian ? 

That which constitutes the C/rristimi is not 
outward poverty, but a mind disengaged from 
the transitory goods of earth ; it is not the 
bare material fact of having things,in common, 
but the invisible tie of fraternal charity, which 
makes, as it were, of all hearts but one heart. 

Such were the early Christians ; angels in 
the flesh, men dead to the world and to them- 
selves, living only in Jesus Christ, aspiring 
only to a happy eternity. 



* Althougli this chapter is more appHcable to the state 
of France than it is to America, it is not without great 
pertinence here, too ; the essential doctrine of tlie Com- 
munists has many advocates on this side the Atlantic. 



TO OBJECTIONS AGAINST RELIGION, 55 

And it is to these men of prayer, of peni- 
tence, of meekness, and celestial peace, that 
you would venture to compare the detestable 
bands of our modern secret societies ! You 
would give for brethren to these men of eter- 
nity, men who do not even believe in eternity, 
and who aspire only to the pleasures of this 
world ? . . . Good God ! what an aberration 
of mind ! 

The Oommunifcjts are persecuted, they are 
tracked by jiistice, transported ; yes, no doubt 
they are. But, here again, is it enough to be 
pursued, imprisoned^ even killed, to be called a 
disciple of Jesus Chkist ? 

According to this method, all robbers, all 
murderers, would be excellent Christians ! 

The Apostles and Christians were persecuted 
because of their virtues ; you, promoters of 
anarchy, are persecuted because of your ex- 
cesses. They strove to sanctity the world, you 
desire to excite sedition. Prayer and meekness 
of heart were their weapons ; they went forth 
to martyrdom, pardoning their executioners ; 
while you, armed with deadly weapons, harbor 
nothing but envy, hatred, and revenge in your 
hearts. 

No, you are not Christians, but Anti-Chris- 
tians ! You blaspheme that which Christians 
adore, and that which you love they abhor. 

Besides, there still exists, and has never 
ceased to exist among the disciples of the 



56 SHORT Aiq^D FAMILIAR ANSWERS 

Gospel, that primitive and perfect life, in 
which all men are hretliren^ where all things 
are in common, where poverty and sanctity 
reign. Visit our monasteries. There you will 
find what you seek ; they are real Phalan- 
steries^ of which the communist Utopias are 
but a horrible and unreal imitation. 

Let not, then, the Socialists in future usurp 
the sacred name of the Saviour ; let them no 
more speak of fersecutions^ of martyrdoin^ of 
Calvaivj, They are, it is true, on Calvary ; 
but they are there like the bad thief crucified 
for his crimes, and not like the Divine Son of 
Mary. 



XL 

there are many learned men and people 
of mind who do not believe in religion. 

Answer. What is to be concluded from 
that, but that it is not enough to have profane 
learning or to possess talent, in order to be a 
Christian, and to receive from God the gift of 
faith ; but that something more is required, 
namely, a pure and upright heart, humble, 
well-regulated, willing to make those sacrifices 
that the knowledge of truth imposes. 

Now, this is just what is wanting among 
those learned men (and they are few) who are 
irreligious. 



TO OBJECTIO^q^S AGAIN^ST RELIGION". 57 

1st. Either they are indifferent and ignorant 
in matters of religion ; absorbed in their 
mathematical, astronomical, physical studies, 
they neither think of God nor of their soul ; 
and then it is not surprising that they know 
nothiuo; of religion. In what concerns rehVion 
they are ignorant, and their judgment on it is 
worth no more than that of a mathematician 
about music and painting. 

There are some learned men wlio are more 
ignorant of religion than a child of ten years 
old, who is assiduous in learning his cate- 
chism. 

2d. Or else, what happens oftener, they are 
haughty spirits who presume to judge God, to 
argue with Him as an equal, and to measure 
His word by the dimensions of their feeble 
reason. Pride is the profoundest in its malice 
of all the vices. Tlierefore, they are justly 
rejected as presumptuous minds, and deprived 
of that light which is only given to simple and 
humble hearts. God does not love proud rebels. 

3d. Or else, what happens still oftener, and 
is generally accompanied by the two other 
vices, these learned men cherish some bad pas- 
sions of which they will not rid themselves, 
and which they know to be incompatible with 
the Christian Tleligion. 

Moreover, if one will only weigh the num- 
ber and value of the witnesses, the difficulty 
entirely disappears. 



58 SHORT AND FAMILIAR ANSWERS 

One may affirm that, for the last eighteen 
hundred years, among the eminent men of 
each century there has not been more than one 
in twenty, who was a freethinker. 

And in this trivial number, one may also 
affirm that the majority were not steadily in- 
credulous, but before their death took refuge 
in tlie arms of that religion which they had so 
often blasphemed. — Such were, among others, 
some of the leaders of the Voltairian school 
of the last century, Montesquieu, Biiffori^ la 
Harpe, &c. 

Voltaire himself, when illness overtook him 
in Paris, sent for the rector of St. Sulpice 
about a month before his death.—The danger 
passed, and with the danger, the fear of God 
it had inspired. But a second crisis came on : 
all the impious companions of the sick man 
hastened to his side. . . . His physician, an 
eye-witness of the scene, attests that Voltaire 
again called for the assistance of religion 
. . . but this time in vain ; the priest was not 
allowed to approach the dying man, who ex- 
pired a prey to the most horrible desjDair ! 

D'xllembert also was anxious to confess his 
sins ; and he w^as prevented, just as his master 
had been, by the pliiloso^liers surrounding his 
bedside.— '' If we had not been there/' one of 
them afterwards said, '^ he would have plaj^ed 
the coward just like the others ! " 

What moral value have these men ? And 



TO OBJTECTIOKS AGAI2<rST RELlGIOiSr. 59 

what does their irreligion prove, above all if 
you oppose to them the enlightened faith of 
the most learned men, the great geniiiseSj the 
men most worthy of our veneration that have 
ever appeared on earth ? 

The faith they held imposed on the latter, 
please to observe, as it does on all men, disa- 
greeable restraints and imperative duties. The 
evidence of the truth of Christianity alone 
could have compelled them to give in their 
adhesion to its rules. 

Not to speak of those admirable doctors of 
the Church, called by her Fathers^ and who 
were almost the only philosophers and savants 
of the first fifteen centuries, such as St. Atha- 
nasius, St. Ambrose, St. Gregory the Great, 
St. Jerome, St. Augustine, St. Bernard, St, 
Thomas of Aquinas, (the most extraordinary 
man who has ever existed perhaps,) how many 
illustrious names may not religion count among 
her children ? 

Roger Bacon^ Copernicus^ Descartes^ PnscaL 
Malehranche^ cF Agitesseau^ Lamorgvion^ Maiheio 
Mole^ Cujas^ Domat^ de Maistre, de Boiiald^ &c., 
among the great philosophers^ jurisconsults, 
and erudite of the w^orld. 

Bjssuel^ Fenelon^ Bourdaloue, Massillon^ among 
great orators. 

Corneille^ Racine^ Dante^ Tasso^ Boileau, Cha- 
teauhriand^ &c., among men of letters and 
poets. 



60 SHOliT AND FAMILIAR ANSWERS 

And our military glories, are they not for 
the most part blended with religion ? Was 
not Charlemagne a Christian ? Godfrey of 
Bouillon^ Tancred^ Bayard, du Gitesclin^ Joan 
of Arc^ Crillon^ Vauhan^ Villars^ Catinat^ (fee, 
did they not bend before religion their illus- 
trious brows, bound wdth the laurels of a thou- 
sand victories ? Henry IV., Louis XIV., were 
Christians. Tarenne was a Christian, he had 
received the Holy Communion the very day of 
his death. — The Great Conde was a Christian. 
— And above all these, St. Louis, that real 
hero, that prince so perfect and so amiable, the 
glory alike of France and of the Church. 

All know the sentiments of the great Napo- 
leon touching Christianity. In the intoxication 
of power and ambition, he swerved far from 
the rules and practical duties of religion, I 
admit; but he always preserved his belief in 
it, and respect for it: "I am a Christian, a 
Roman Catholic," he said ; " my son is so also ; 
I should be much grieved if my grandson 
could not be the same." . . . ^' The greatest 
service I have ever rendered to France," he 
also added, '^is the re-establishment of the 
Catholic religion." "Without religion, to 
what would men come ? They would cut one 

.nother's throats for the prettiest woman, oy 

br the largest pear ! " 
When he found himself alone, at St. Helena, 



TO 0BJECTI0:N^S AGAI^STST EELlGIO^s^. Gl 

lie began to reflect on the faith of his child- 
hood, and in his profound genius, Napoleon 
found the Catholic faith to be both real and 

He asked of religion its last consolations. . . . 

He sent for a Catholic priest to come to St. 
Helena, and attended the mass which was cel- 
ebrated in his apartments. He desired that on 
abstinence days, no flesh-meat should be served 
at his table. He surprised the companions of 
his exile by the force with which he set forth, 
in conversation, the fundamental doctrines of 
Catholicism. 

When near to death he sent away the physi- 
cians, begged to see the Abbe Vignali, his 
chaplain, and said to him : " I believe in God ; 
I was born in the Catholic religion ; and I wish 
to fulfil the duties which it imposes, and to 
receive the last aid that it affords us." 

And the emperor confessed, received the 
Holy Viaticum and Extreme Unction. . . . 
^' I am happy to have fulfilled my duties," he 
said to General Montholon. " I wish you, at 
your death, the same happiness, general. . . . 
I never practised them when on the throne, 
because power dazzles the mind. But I have 
always had faith ; the sound of church-bells is 
agreeable to my ears, and the sight of a priest 
affects me. I wanted to make a mystery of all 
this, but that is a weakness. ... I desire to 
render glory to God ! " . . . 



62 SHORT AKD FAMILIAR AN^SWERS 

He tlien gave orders himself that an altar 
should be erected in the next room, so that 
there might be an Exposition of the Blessed 
Sacrament, and the Forty Hours devotion. 

Thus died Napoleon, as a Christian. 

Do not let us be afraid of deceiving our- 
selves by following the example of all those 
great men, the number of v^hom, and their 
religious knowledge, but above all their moral 
worth, prevails far over those few men who 
have chosen to despise Christianity. 

Pride,— the passion for profane knowledge 
which absorbed them entirely, — and other pas- 
sions yet more degrading and headstrong, are 
more than sufficient reasons to explain their 
mibelief ; while the truth of religion has been 
alone powerful enough to bow the necks of the 
others under the sacred yoke of Catholicism ! 



XII, 



PRIESTS MAKE A TRADE OF RELIGION, THEY DO 



KOT BELIEVE WHAT THEY PREACH 



Answer. What do you venture to assert? 
—The priests of Jesus Christ are impostors ! 
Pray, how do you know it? How can you 
read their hearts, and pronounce whether they 
believe or do not believe in the sacred origin of 
their priesthood i It is the accuser's business 



TO OBJECTIONS AGAINST RrLIGION. 63 

to prove what lie advances ; prove this accusa- 
tion ; I defy you to do it. 

You will perhaps cite, by way of proof, the 
name of some bad priest. 

I must then remind you that the exception 
proves the rule. A wicked, unbelieving priest 
would not be so much the subject of comment, 
if the great majority were not so holy, pure, 
and venerable. 

A spot of ink is seen wdth extraordinary dis- 
tinctness on a pure white robe; it would be 
hardly perceptible if the robe were black or 
soiled. 

So is it with the Catholic priesthood, to 
whom impiety thus pays an involuntary hom- 
age. 

That there are bad priests, is not a strange 
thing. Remember there was a Judas among 

the Apostles! Just as the Apostles, the 

first priests, the first Bishops of the Church, 
thrust out the traitor from among them, and 
were not responsible for his crime, so the 
Church condemns, with even more energy and 
horror than you yourselves express, those trai- 
torous priests who desert their sublime duties ! 
She first endeavors to bring them back into the 
right way, by gentleness and pardon ; priests, 
as well as other men, have a right to mercy ; 
but the irreclaimable, those who persevere in 
the bad road, she cuts off from her communion, 
and strikes them with her anathemas. 



64 SHORT AKD FAMILIAR ANSWERS 

Priests are impostors ! And what interest 
have they then in hearing jour confessions, re- 
proving you for your vices, preaching to yon, 
catechising your children, feeding the poor, 
giving to this one good advice ; to that one, 
consolation; to another, bread? 

AVould it be possible to curtail by a farthing 
their slender revenues, and the still more slen- 
der nature of their occasional fees, if they kept 
silence about the irregularities and excesses of 
their parishioners, if they admitted any or every 
person to the sacraments, without giving them- 
selves the trouble of examining the state of 
their conscience, or if they were to abridge 
their CvUtechising, &c. ? What worldly inter- 
est have they then in fulfilling well their min- 
istry ? 

No, no ; the priest is not what the impious 
wish him to be, and it is because they are aware 
of this, that these people detest the priest so 
cordially. They see in him the representative 
of the God Who condemns their vices, the en- 
voy of Jesus Christ, whom they blaspheme, and 
Who will judge them. They see in him the 
personification of that law of God which they 
unceasingly violate ; and it is because they do 
not v/ish to acknowledge the Master, that they 
do not wish to recognise His minister. 



TO OBJECTIOlNrS AGAINST RELIGIOi^, 65 



XIII. 

PRIESTS ARE DEONES m THE HIYE! OF WHAT 
USE ARE THEY 2 

Answer. They are of use in saving souls! 
Certainly, here is an employment which is at 
least as ^ood as many others. 

The mechanic works upon matter ; the priest 
works on the soiiL As mueh as the soul is 
higher than matter, so much is the priest's work 
higher than all the labors of the earth. 

The priest continues the great labor of the 
salvation of mankind. Jesus Christ, his God 
and his Model, began it; His priests continue 
it through all ages. 

After His example, the priest goes about do- 
ing good. He is a man who belongs to all ; his 
heart, his time, his health, his diligence, his 
purse, his life, belong to all ; above all, to the 
lowly ones of the earth, to children, to the poor, 
the neglected, those who weep, and who are 
friendless. He expects nothing in exchange 
for this devotedness ; most frequently, indeed, 
he only receives insults, abominable calumnies, 
and ill-treatment. True disciple of his Divine 
Master, he only replies by continuing to do 
good. What a life 1 What superhuman abne- 
gation ! 

In public calamities, civil wars, contagious 
diseases, in times of cholera, when the Protest- 
5 



66 SHOKT AIS^D FAMILIAR A]S"SWEES 

ant ministers and philantliropists think of per- 
sonal preservation, he is to be seen exposing hi& 
life and health to relieve and save his brethren ; 
such was Monsigneur Affre, Archbishop of 
Paris, on the ban^icades; such were Belzunce 
and St. Charles Borromeo, in the time of the 
plague at Marseilles and Milan ; such, during 
the cholera in 1832 and 1849, all the clergy of 
Paris and so many other towns, who made 
themselves the public servants of the whole 
people. 

This, then, is the use of the priests I I should 
like to know if those who attack them are of 
more use. 

The ungrateful wretches ! They are never 
weary of loading with insults him whom they 
summon to their bedside in time of sorrow or 
privation, who has blessed them in their ear- 
lier years, and who never ceases to pray for 
them. 

All the miseries of our country arise from our 
not practising what the priests teach. And our 
unfortunate France, torn with civil discords 
and political commotions, may apply to herself 
the language addressed to the chaplain of one 
of the Paris prisons, by a poor convict, who 
had returned to God with all his heart. The 
priest had given him a little Christian's man- 
ual. '' Ah, father ! '' he said one day, showing 
the little book, " if I had known the contents 



TO OBJECTIONS AGAINST RELIGION. 67 

of this, and had practised these maxims all my 
life, I should not have done what I have now 
done, nor should I have been where I now 
am ! ^^ 

If France had alwavs known, and if she now 
knew what priests really do teach, and if she 
had always practised those doctrines, and con- 
tinued doing so to this time, she would not 
have been tossed about by three or four revolu- 
tions in the space of fifty years, and be reduced 
to ask herself in the present day. Am I abont 
to perish entirely ? Can I still hope to be saved 
from destruction ? 

She may hope to be saved, if she will again 
be truly Catholic ! She may hope to be sav-ed 
if she will but take heed to the ministers of 
Him who saves the world. 

The priesthood is then the safety of France! 
For without religion^ society would be de- 
stroyed. 

Her children, then, owe honor, veneration, 
gratitude, more than ever to the priestly char- 
acter. Those who repulse the idea have not 
the intelligence of our age or country. 

Away with these worn-out prejudices, then ! 
Away with these coarse and injurious epithets, 
with which th^ blind impiety of Voltaire and 
his followers have so long assailed the Catholic 
priesthood t 

Let us respect our Priests. If we see im- 
perfections^ even vices occasionally, among 



68 SHORT AKD FAMILIAR Ai^SWERS 

them, let us remember that we must ascribe to 
the man all that belongs to frailty. 

Let us endeavor, in those cases, not to look 
at the man, to see nothing but the priest : as a 
priest^ he is always worthy of respect, and his 
ministry is always a holy one ; for he is the 
perpetuator of the office of Jesus Christ, the 
great High Priest, through successive ages, and 
it is of him that the Saviour has said, "'He that 
heareth you^ heareth Me ; and he that despiseth 
youy despiseth Him that sent youj^ 



XIY. 

THERE ARE CERTAINLY SOME BAD PRIESTS ; 
HOW CAN THEY BE THE MINISTERS OF GOD '^ 

Answer. Because, in becoming bad men, 
they do not c*ease to be Priests. 

Do you cease to be a Christian, because you 
commit a sin? Does a judge cease to be a 
judge, do his decisions cease to have a binding 
force, because his own integrity is not above 
reproach ? Does a father cease to be a father, 
because he fails in his duties? Does a cap- 
tain lose the right to command his men, be- 
cause he himself commits a breach of dis- 
cipline ? 

If it is so in human affairs, where public 
trusts may, in the strictest sense, be taken 
away from those who are not worthy of them. 



TO OBJECTIONS AGAIXST EELIGIOK. 69 

how much more stable, more inalienable yet, 
should not be, in spiritual things, that sacred 
character of the priesthood on which rests the 
security of men's consciences, and the whole 
life of 'the faithful! 

If our Priests ceased to be Priests by the 
sole fact of committing some grievous sin, we 
should never know if we really received the 
holy things from their hands ; for God alone 
knows and searches men's consciences. 

It is for us that they are priests ; and for us 
that they remain so, even ^^hen they forget 
their greatness. 



XV. 



PKIESTS OUGHT TO MAERY. CELIBACY IS CON- 
TRARY TO NATURE. 

Answer. Not contrary to nature^ but aOove 
nature ; which is quite different. 

Therefore, the chastity of the priest is not 
natural^ but supernatural ; it comes from the 
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, in the 
sacrament of holy orders, gives to His minis* 
ters a divine character and a supernatural virtue 
which raises them above other men. 

God is single and alone; so should His 
priests be. 

''The Great Spirit has no wife,^' said an 



70 SHOET AJ^D FAMILIAR ANSWERS 

Indian chief ta an American captain^ who pro- 
posed to send some Protestant missionaries 
among them ; " His- priests should be like 
Him ; since yours are married, we will have 
nothing to say to them. They resemble our- 
selves, and would be of no use to us." 

Jesus Christ, God made man, preserved 
perfect continence. His envoy should follow 
the same path. The disciple is perfect when he 
resembles his Master, 

It is chastity which surrounds the Priest 
with his divine halo. It is that which invest.^ 
him with such a moral power, that he has the 
right of attacking the vices of his brethren, of 
counselling not only good, but perfection ; of 
consoling penitence, of penetrating secrets so 
hidden, that the daughter dares not tell them 
to her mother, the wife to her husband, the 
brother to his brother. 

Marry the Priest ; the wonder-worker van- 
ishes, the man alone remains ! 

The apologists for the marriage of Priests 
know this welL They only desire one thing : 
to hicimmize the Priest^ that i& to say^ to un- 
priest him. 

They see that these men, so uncompromising 
toward what is wrongs would become the most 
accommodating in the world, if one could only 
give them wives and children. Occupied with 
their own concerns, they would not have much 
time to occupy themselves with the things 



TO OBJECTIONS AGAIKST KELIGIOK. 71 

which concern God, or attend to the state of 
their parishioners' consciences. 

And, then^ heavenly things would be treated 
of quite in the family. To obtain the indul- 
gence of the parish-priest, his lady would be 
liattered, one would sigh at the feet of the 
eldest daughter of his reverence, and admire, 
before their papci^ the talent, the good looks of 
the whole saintly progeny, were they more 
stupid than blocks and uglier than scarecrows. 
The hushand-papa-confessor would not hold out 
against that, and w^ouid grant every thing that 
was asked of him. 

Wo to the Priest, and wo to us, if a woman — 
a wife — touch, in this manner, the spring of 
his power! For, forthwith, '^ a virtue is gone 
out of him ;^^ the vivifyino- virtue which resus- 
citates souls; the powerful virtue which sus- 
tains and encourages them in the ways of God ; 
above all, the virtue of virtues in the priest, 
that which makes him the arbiter between the 

heart of God and the heart of man the 

virtue of charity ! 

Yes ; charity — that apostolic charity which 
embraces all men alike, poor and rich, bad and 
good, strangers and neighbors — it is Virginity 
which kindles it and keeps it alive. Thatsacer- 
dotal body which charity daily immolates for 
the relief and the salvation of its neighbor, 
continence must first have consecrated it with- 
out reserve to the service of God ! 



72 SHORT AND familta:; ai^tswers 

He may be humane, he may be compassion- 
ate, but never will he be a martyr, wliose heart 
is occupied with the love of a woman. 

He may be touched by tl;o sorrows of widow.s 
and orphans, but never vs- ill he devote himself 
to them, who feels that i;e ov/es his first aflec- 
tions, and his fii'st savings, to the support, 
the education, and the fi^tiire of his own chil- 
dren. 

Tlie morsel of bread which he would, per- 
haps, take fi'om his own mouth to sustain the 
starving creature at his door, he would not like 
to snatcli from the hands of his son. 

The life which, in times of public disease and 
contagion, he would sacrifice to the salvation 
of his fellow-men, he owes it and will preserve 
it for his family. What are the most generous 
of resolutions before the tears of a beloved 
wife and the caresses of a child ? 

Marriage is the solemn murder of the Priest. 
If we desire that our Priests should help us to 
salvation, (and they alone can do this,) let us 
leave them alone with Jesus Christ. Besides, 
are they so desirous of marrying? Not the 
least in the world, I assure you. — Since when 
have people been obliged to marry against 
their wills ? 



TO OBJECTIONS AGAINST RELIGION. 73 



XVI. 

I ONLY BELIEVE WHAT I COMPEEHEND. CAN 
ANY REASONABLE MAN BELIEVE ALL THE MYS- 
TERIES OF RELIGION? 

Answer. Then don't believe any thing ^ 
nothing in the world, not even that yon live, 
that you see, that you speak, that you hear, 
&c. &c. ; for I defy you to comprehend any of 
these phenomena. 

What, in fact, is life? what is laiufuage? 
what is sound? what are noise^ color ^ smelly &c. 1 

What is the wind? where does it begin? 
where, and why, and how does it stop ? What 
is cold,, or heat ? 

What is sleep ? How comes it, that when I 
am asleep, my ears remaining open absolutely 
the same as when I am awake, I hear nothing ? 
Why, and how do I awake from sleep ? and 
what is the process ? 

What 2lvq fatigue^ sorrow^ ^^Zeasz^re ? &c. &c. 

What is matter^ that indescribable some- 
thing, which takes all forms, all colors, &c. ? 

Who comprehends what it is ? 

How is it, that with my eyes, which are 
merely two little balls, quite black in the in- 
side, I can see all surrounding objects, even 
millions of miles off, (the stars, for instance ?) 

How is it that my soul would separate from 
my body if I did not, regularly, cause to enter 



74 SHORT a:n'd familiar answers 

into tliat body, by idv food, certain morsels of 
dead animals, of plants, of vegetables, etc. ? 

All is mystery^ in me, even down to the 
most vnlgar ihingSj to the purely animal 
functions. 

What learned man has ever coii^preh ended 
the why and wherefore of the phenomena of 
nature ? Who has ever comprehended a single 
one of them ? What mysteries / . . . . 

And I wish to comprehend Him who has 
made all these beings whicli I cannot compre- 
hend ! I do not comprehend the creature, and 
yet I want to comprehend the Creator ! I do 
not comprehend the finite, and I would com- 
prehend the infinite ! I do not comprehend 
even an acorn, a fly, a pebble, and I want to 
comprehend God and all His precepts ! 

But it is absurd/ There is nothing else to 
answer. 

The mysteries of religion are like the sun. 
Impenetrable in themselves, they enlighten 
and vivify those who walk with simplicity in 
their radiance : they but blind the audacious 
eyes which would fathom their splendor. 



* A mystery is a truth, of wliicli we can with certainty 
know the existence, but which we cannot understand ii\ 
itself, save in an imperfect manner. 

All thing's are mystery for the reflecting' mind, in na~ 
ture as well as in religion. It is the stamp of God's 
handiwork. 



TO OBJECTIOKS AGAIKST RELIGION. 75 

Mysteries are above reason^ and not contnxry 
to reason ; m which there is a great difference. 
Reason does not perceive, of her unaided 
strengthj the truth which they express ; neither 
does she perceive the impossibility of that 
truth. 

No, faith is not opposed to reason. Far 
from that, she is her sister and her helper. It 
is a more brilliant light which comes to add 
itself to a light already shining. 

Faith is to reason what the telescope is te 
the naked eye. The eye, with the telescope, 
sees what it could not perceive alone. It 
penetrates into regions which are inaccessible 
without that aid. Will you say that the tele- 
scope is opposed to the eyesight ? 

Such then is faith. It does but regulate and 
extend reason. It leaves it its fre^ exercise in 
all that comes within its range ; and when its 
natural powers have reached their limits, faith 
comes to its aid, raises it higher, and causes it 
to penetrate into new supernatural divine 
truths, even into the secrets of God. 

I believe the mysteries of religion, then, as I 
believe \\\Q mysteries* of nature, because I know 
that thev exist. 

I know that the mysteries of nature exist, 
because they are attested by the most nnex- 
ceptionable witnesses, namely, all my senses 
and common sense. 

I know that the mysteries of religion exist, 



76 SHORT Aiq-D FAMILIAR AXSWERS 

because they also are attested by the most iin- 
exceptionable witnesxses, Jesus Christ and His 
Church,"^ My reason serves me to examine 
and to weigh the value of their testimony. 
But once that by the touch of philosophy^ of 
criticism, and of good sense, I have examined 
the facts which prove to me the tnithy divinity, 
infallibility of these testimonies, my reason ha& 
finished its work ; faith must take its place, 
reason has conducted me up to truth. Truth 
speaks, and I have only to h'sten, to open my 
heart, to believe, to adore. 

My faith in the Christian mysteries is then 
supremely reasonable. It proves a solid and 
loo'ical mind. My reason has said to me, 
*' These witnesses can neither deceive you nor 
themselves. They bring you the truth from 
heaven ! '' I should not be true to my reason 
were I not to believe their word. 

It is a pitiful weakness of mind to wish to 
believe only what one comprehends-. 



XVII. 

I WOULD WILLINGLY HAVE FAITH, BUT I CAN- 
NOT. 

Answer. That is a pure illusion, which 
will not excuse you at the tribunal of the 

*'^ See in the 17th, 18th, and 19th chapters, the ques- 
tions of the divinity of Jesus Christ and His Church. 



TO OBJECTIOTsrS AGAIKST KELIGION". 77 

awful Judge, who has declared to us, that " he 

WHO BELIKVES IJS^ HIM HAS ETERNAL LIFE, AND 
HE WHO BELIEVES NOT IN HIM IS ALSExiDY CON- 
DEMNED." 

You cannot believe F And what means have 
you taken to arrive at faith ? He v/ho desires 
the end, desires the means also ; he who neg- 
lects the means, shows evidently that he is not 
very anxious about the end. 

Now, thai: is your case, if yon have not 
faith. — Eidier you have not adopted the means 
of obtaining it, or yon have not adopted them 
thoroughly, which comes to nearly the same 
thing. 

1st. Have you prayed? It is the first con- 
dition of all God's gifts, consequently of faith, 
which is the most precious of them all, and 
the fandamental condition. Have yon asked 
of God this grace of faith ? — How have yon 
asked for it? — ^Hlave yon not done so casually 
enough, without feeling deeply interested in 
it; once only, perhaps, and without perse- 
veranca? Had yon while praying, have you 
at this presant moment, a deep, a sincere, a 
lively dssire to believe and to be a Christian? 
There are some who ask for virtues, and who 
are very much afraid of their being bestowed 
on them. 

2dly. Have you studied religion with a sin- 
cere love of the truth ? Have I not seen skep- 
tics stwlying religion in Voltaire, Roussean, 



78 SHORT AKD FAMILIAR ANSWERS 

&c. ? As well miglit you study the manners 
and customs of France in Eiigl'dnd.— Have you 
sought oat a well-irt formed priest^ or, at the least, 
a Christian of enlightened belief^ to whom to 
expose your difficulties, and have them re- 
solved? Pride is at hand, and often hinders 
this. 

3dly. Are you resolved, if God were to give 
you faith, to live according to its holy and 
rigid maxims, to combat your passions, to 
labor for your sanctiiication, to make to God 
the sacrifices which He shall demand of you? 

Here, with the most part of unbelievers, is 
the true reason of their incredulity. It is in 
the main the heart, it is passion rather than 
reason, whicli rejects faith as too difficult, too 
wearisome. ^- Light has come into the world," 
said Jesus CiimsT, '' and men have preferred 
darkness rather than light, hecause their deeds 
ivere evilP The heart gets the better of the 
head. Then all arguments are useless, truth 
is not to be listened to. ^^ None are so deaf as 
those tu/io loill not hear^^ says the proverb. 

This blindness is voluntary and culpable in 
its cause ; this is why our Lord Jesus Christ 
declared that all unbelievers are judged before- 
hand, they have resisted ti*uth. 

Be of good faith then in your researches 
after religious truth ; ask God for light with 
sincerity and perseverance, la if your douhts he- 
fore some charitable and eidvjhtened Priest ^ be 



TO OBJECTIOKS AGAIN^ST EELTGIOIsr. 79 

disposed to live according to the faitli as soon 
as the divine light shall illuminate your mind ; 
and I affirm to yoUj in the name of Jesus 
Christ, that you will not fail soon to believe, 
and to become a good Catholic. 



XYIII. 

ALL RELIGIONS ARE GOOD. 

Answer. All religions are good, in this 
sense that it is better to have some, of what- 
ever kind it may be, than to have none at all ; 
but not in the sense that it is quite unim- 
portant whether you profess one or another. 

You think, perhaps, provided a man is a 
worthy member of society, it signifies little 
whether he be Heathen, Jew, Turk, Christian, 
Protestant, or Catholic ; that all religious 
forms are human inventions, about which our 
good God must certainly trouble Himself very 
little. 

But tell me, whence have you obtained this 
notion ? And who has revealed to you that all 
the forms of worship one sees in the world are 
equally pleasing to the Lord ? 

Because there are some false religions, does 
it follow that there is none w^iich is true? 
Because one is surrounded by deceivers, is it 
no longer possible to discern a real friend ? 

You have then discovered that God receives 



80 SHOUT AKD FAMILIAR A:N^SWEKS 

with the same love the Christian who adores 
Jesus Christ, and the Jew who only sees in 
Him a vile impostor? That it is good and 
lawful in heathen countries to adore, iu the 
place of the one Supreme God, Jupiter, Mars, 
Venus ? To render divine honors to the sacred 
crocodiles, and to the ox Apis, in Egypt? To 
sacrifice, amono; the Phoenicians, one's chil- 
dren to the god Moloch ? In Gaul or Mexico, 
to innnolate hundreds of human victims to the 
hideous idols there venerated ? Elsewhere, to 
prostrate oneself before a trunk of a tree, be- 
fore stones, plants, the remains of animals, 
masses of decay ? To repeat from the bottom 
of the heart, at Constantinople, '* God is God, 
and Mohammed is His prophet?" At Eome, 
in Paris, to abhor all these false gods, to 
despise this same Mohammed as an impostor ? 

It is quite impossible that you believe all 
this sincerely ! — That is what you say, how- 
ever, '' All religions are good." 

Why not rather have the merit of frankness, 
and own that you do not wish the trouble of 
seeking for truth, that it is of little conse- 
quence to you, and that you look upon it as 
useless ? 

The search after religious truth useless? . . . 
Rash man ! Suppose, — in direct contradiction 
to your affirmation, which is supported by 
nothing,— that God has imposed on man an 
order of determinate homage? Suppose, that 



. TO OBJECTIOXS AGAINST RELIGION". 81 

among all religions, one^ one onlif is the 
KELiGiON, religious and absolute trnth^ like all 
oclier truth, rejecting all mixture with it, ex- 
cluding all which is not itself. — To what are 
yon, then, exposing yourself? Do you think 
that vour indifference will excuse you before 
the tribunal of the sovereign Judge ? And 
can you, without perfect madness, brave such a 
terrible prospect % 

Just see the misery of man without a divine 
religion ! See him with only the pale rays of 
liis reason, abandoned to doubt, often even to 
the most inevitable, the most perilous igno- 
rance with regard to the fundamental ques- 
tions of his destinies, his duties, his happiness! 
From whence do I come? Who am I? 
Whither am I going? What is my last end? 
How am I to attain to it? What is there 
beyond this life ? What is God ? What does 
He desire of me, &c. &c. 

Now what answer can reason, left to its un- 
aided strength, give to these inhnite problems? 
Jt stammers, it remains mute ; it can only offer 
probable, possible solutions, a thousand times 
insufficient to enable us to surmount the vio- 
lence of our passions, to sustain us in the rug- 
ged path of duty. 

And you would be willing to think that the 
God of all wisdom, of all goodness, of all light, 
has thus abandoned His reasonable creature, 
man, the greatest work of His hands ? 
6 



82 SHOBT A^^D FAMILIAR AKSWEHS 

Ko, no. He has caused to shine before his 
eyes a heavenly light, which, corresponding to 
the imperious wants of his being, reveals to 
him, with a divine evidence, the nature, and 
the justice, and the goodness, and the designs 
of that God who is his first principle and his 
last end ; a light which shows to him the road 
of good, and the road of evil, both lying open 
before him, the one leading to eternal joys, the 
other to eternal punishments ; a light which, 
amidst the false gleamings w^herewith human 
corruption has surrounded it, is distinguished 
b}^ the sole splendor of its trutii ; a light which 
illumines, quickens, perfects all whicli it pene- 
trates ! 

And this light is the Christian Revelation^ 
Christianity, the only religion which has 
proofs, the only one vfhich enlightens the rea- 
son, w^hich sanctifies the heart, and, referring 
all our moral perfection to the knowledge and 
love of God, is worthy of God and of our- 
selves. 

What human tongue could enumerate all the 
titles that Christianity has to our belief? 

Behold it, at the outset, ascend to the very 
cradle of the world by the prophecies which 
announce it, by the laitb, the hope, and the 
love of the holy patriarchs, and by the cere- 
monies of the Mosaic and primitive worship 
which foreshadow it ! 



• TO OBJECTIONS AGAIi^ST RELIGIO:^'. 83 

It lias ever been, in fact, one sole and iden- 
tical religioi'j though it has been developed in 
three successive phases. 

1st In the patriarchal religion^ which lasted 
from Adam till the time of Moses ; 

2dly. In the Jewish religion, which Moses 
promulgated, as sent from God, and which 
lasted till the Advent of Jesus Christ; 

3dly, In the Christian, or Catholic religion, 
taught by Jesus Ciirist Himself, and preached 
by His Apostles. 

It developed itself, from its origin, gradually 
and majestically, like all the v^^orks of God ;— 
like man, who pp^sses through the stages of 
childhood, of adolescence, before arriving at 
the perfection of his age; as the day passes 
through the stages of twilight, and dawn, be- 
fore it shines in its mid-day splendor; as the 
flower, which is first a mere germ, next a closed 
bud, before it discovers the beauty of its un- 
folded petals. 

And thus Christianity, and it alone^ embracc.-^^ 
humanity at large ; it rules all things, the pres- 
ent time, and the ages past and present. It 
sets out from eternity to return again to the 
bosom of eternity. It proceeds from God only 
to repose eternally in God ! 

All in it is worthy of its author. All in it 
is TRUTH and sanctity. And those who study 
it discover in it a marvellous harmony, a 



o 



J: SHOKT AKD FAMILIAR AIs^SWEES 



beauty, a grandeur, an evidence of truth; 
and these ever increasing and growing, in 
proportion as they examine its dogmas. 

It touches and purifies the hearty at the same 
time that it enlightens the mind. It fills the 
whole man. 

The sublime, superhuman, and incomparable 
character of Jesus Christ, its founder ; 

The divine perfection of His life ; 

The sanctity of His law ; 

The practical sublimity of the doctrine which 
He taught ; 

His language, which is absurd, if it is not 
divine ; 

The number and evidence of His miracles, 
recoo:nised even bv His most violent ene- 
mies ; 

The power of His Cross ; 

The events of His ineffable Passion, all fore- 
told beforehand ; 

His glorious Resurrection, announced at 
fourteen different times by Him to His dis- 
ciples, and the unbelief even of His Apostles, 
whom actual evidence compelled to believe in 
the truth of the Resurrection of their Mas- 
ter; 

His ascension into heaven, in the sight of 
more than five hundred witnesses ; 

The supernatural development of His 
Church, in spite of so many natural impossi- 
bilities, both physical and moral ; 



TO OEJECTIONS AGAIKST RELIGION. 85 

The resplendent miracles which acconip:- 
nied, all over the earth, the teachings of the 
apostles, ignorant and timid fishermen, changed 
suddenly into doctors and conquerors of the 
world ; 

The superhuman strength of His nine mil* 
lions of martyrs ; 

The genius of the Fathers of the Chnrch, 
crushing all errors, by the mere exposition 
of the Christian faith ; 

The holy lives of true Christians, opposed 
to the corruption and natural weakness of 
men ; 

The social metamorphosis w^hich Christianity 
has operated, and still in our days operates, in 
all the countries where it penetrates ; 

Finally, its duration, the immutability of its 
dogmas, of its constitution, of its Catholic 
hierarchy ; its indissoluble unity in the midst 
of the empires w^hicli are crumbling away, 
of societies which are daily changing; all 
show us that the finger of God is here, and 
that it is not in the power of man to conceive, 
to create, or to preserve a similar work. 

There is then, you see, a true religion, one 
oi^LY, the Christian religion. 

It alone is eeligion, that is to sav, the sa- 
cred tie which attaches us to God, our Creator 
and Father. 

It is the only one which transmits to ns true 



86 SHOKT AND FAMILIAR AKSWERS 

religious doctrine, that wliich God teaches us 
with regard to Himself, His nature, and works, 
^viih regard to ourselves, our eternal destinies, 
our moral duties. 

All other pretended religions, v\iiich teach 
\vhat Christianity rejects^ and reject what 
Chrisdanity teaches. Paganism, Judaism,*^ Mo- 
liannnedanism, whatsoever they may be called^ 
are then false, and, consequently, bad. 

They are human inventions, while religion 
is a divine institution. They are only sacri- 
legious imitations of true religion, as false coin 
is a dishonest imitation of the genuine. 

Would it not be preposterous to say, ^' All 
pieces of money are good^^' without distinguish- 
ing the real from the counterfeit I 

* With regard to tlie Jewisli religion, tliei^e is a spe- 
cial ditOculty ; for, having bseu, according to God's de- 
signs, the preparation for the advent of the Messiah, and 
as the second phase of true religion, it loas, hut since Je^ 
sua Christ it is no longer, the true religion, Judaism was 
like the scaffolding of the mason, necessary to construct 
the edifice. The house once finished, the scaffolding 
pliould be removed ; it is no longer more than a useless 
tmd troublesome obstacle. 

The- headstrong Jew has left the house for the scaffokh 
Ing ; he has sacrificed the reality to the figure, Since the 
tidvent of the Messiah, without temple, altarg, sacrifices, 
the Jewish peopiC, dispersed in the world, where it can* 
not be destroyed, carries vfith it its own corpse-like re- 
ligion ; it subsists through all ages, accoiding to the pre^ 
diction of Jesus Christ, to serve as a perpetual witness to 
Christianity, as the shadow of a body proves its sub- 
Stance. 



TO OBJECTIONS AGAINST RELIGION. 87 

It would be more preposterous still to repeat 
henceforth that phrase of which we have just 
been proving the folly, " all religions are good." 

Either it is a piece of heinous impietv, or of 
prodigious absurdity ; of impiety^ if said from 
indifference ; of folly, if from ignorance or 
heedlessness. 



XIX. 

IS JESUS CHRIST ANY THING l\r0RE THAN A 
GREAT PHILOSOPHER, A GREAT BENEFACTOR OF 
MANKIND, A GREAT PROPHET ? IS HE REALLY 
GOD ? 

Answer. Listen to His own reply. 

" Yes, you have said it, I am G-od, What! 
so long a tlrae have I been with- you; and have 
you not known me ? He that seeth me, see th 
THE Father also; I and my Farther are 
ONE ! ! ! " ^ 

One would require a whole book to treat 
this question as it deserves. We have already 
touched upon it, in proving the divinity of the 
Christian religion. However, we must press 
it farther, aud develop a point on Vvdiich our 
whole faith reposes. 

Jesus Christ is the Hero of the Gospel.f 



* St. Matthew, xxvi. 63, 64. St. Mark, xiv. 61, 62. 
St. Luke, xxii. 70. St. Jolin, xiv. 10. 
f The Gospel is the history of Jesus Christ, ■written by 



88 SHORT AKD FAMILIAR AKSnERS 

And first, mark tlie gigantic proportions of 
that tigurGj compared to all others, even to the 
greatest ! All other men quik die ; they make 
a noise during their passage, they disturb the 
world , . . and after tliem, v/hat remains of 
it all ? Their names, lauded or scorned at 
first, becoming indiuereut alter a time, are 
finally buried in the pages of some books. 
They no longer lire on the earth. 

Jesus Christ alone lives still, lives always, 
lives everywhere. He is present to the world. 
To-day, as much as 18* lO years ago; in Paris, 
in London, in Rome, in St. Fetersbiirgh, in 
Asia, in America, everywhere, He is adored -or 
hated ; in all countries He is defended and 
attacked, received and rejected, as in the days 
of His mortal life. He is at the bottom of all 
those <i:reat movements which cause the world 
to shake ; He is the chief question, the centre 
in which meet all the questions v/liich touch 
the heart of humanity. 

He lives, He speaks, He connnands, He 
teaches, He forbids ; He developes His all-pow- 

eye- witnesses in T-resence of ot^.ier eye witnesses, the 
Jews and the early Christians, recounted by the most 
holy of men, tlie Apost:es. who let themselves be put to 
death to attest the truth of their words. 

The niere study of the Gospels is the best ] roof of 
their trutli. Tlie unbelieve:- Eosseau himself owned : 
*' It is not thvHtJiat mople invent^'' he said, ''flte inventor 
of H/cJi a hook icould he only more astonitildttg than its 
Juror 



TO OBJECTIONS AGAINST RELIGION. 89 

erfiil existence in Christianity, of Avhicli He is 
the principle, tiie soul, and the summary. Tlie 
fate of the one is the fate of the other ; for 
Chri.-^tiaiiity is the sequel of the life of Jesus 
f Christ in the universe, throughout all the ages. 

Then Jesus Christ is a universal, contin- 
uous., actual fact, acting these nineteen centu- 
ries p-ist, written upon the human generations, 
upon all countries, upon all peoples of the 
world, in living characters. It is an excep- 
tional lire which penetrates the w^iole world. 
All passes away, all dies around him ; He 
ALONE, HE x4lL0NE lives and endures ! . . . 

He is, then, something more than a mere 
man, and the great Napoleon was right when 
he said, "^ I have had experience of men, and I 
tell yoii, that this one was more than a 
man.'^ 

2:lly. And, stranger still, and peculiar to 
Jesu^ Christ alone, the existence which has 
filled the universe since its first apparition on 
earth, tilled with the same omnipotence the 
ag33 which preceded it, even up to the birth of 
the world. This same Jesus, for whom have 
lived, do live, a>nd ever wdll live, the Christian 
gen3iMtio:i3, it is for Him that the generations 
of tiie an3ient faithful, the disciples of Moses, 
the propli3t3, and the patriarchs have lived ! 
It is in Him they have hoped ; it is for Him 
that they have looked ; it is He vvdiom they 
have so loved ! The sun, in his meridian, 



90 SHORT AKD FAMILIAR AKSWERS 

bathes in his rays all space, that which he has 
passed in his course, and that which he lias yet 
to travel tlirough ; so Jesus Christ, the centre 
of humanity, enlightens, quickens all things, 
the past, the present, and the future. 

3dly. Jesus Christ, and He alone, is the 
type of perfection, the model after which the 
moral civilized w^orld is formed, the mould 
into which humanity casts itself, as it were, to 
reform its vices. — What else is virtue, but the 
imitation of Jesus Christ? 

There is nothing in common between Him 
and any other known type of perfection, 
whether Jev/ish, Greek, or Eoman. He is 
Himself^ He is alone^ He is lultliout a parallel^ 
He is above all. 

In human perfection, there is always compe- 
tition, one man surpasses another, parallels 
may always exist. Jesus Christ, and Jesus 
Christ alone, is the exception. Tliere is a 
solution of continuity between His perfection 
and that of human beings. 

What name can be placed beside Ilis? 
Whom would one venture to compare to 
Him ? The saints, who are the heroes of 
virtue on earth, are but His pale copies. 

None think, none have ever thought to equal 
Him ; for they feel that it is no longer a ques- 
tion of possible rivalry. All is effaced in His 
light, as the factitious lights of the3 earth be- 
come pale wdien the sun bursts forth in all its 



TO OBJECTIOIS'S AGAIJST^T RiilLIGIOK 91 

splendor. He has also said this Himself, ''/ 
am the light of the worMP 

And this superhuman perfection is a phe- 
nomenon without antecedents, it is preceded 
])y nothing, prepared by nothing. It arrives 
like the doctrine it teaches, all created. It 
participates in no theological or philosophical 
school ; it is without a cause, producing or 
explaining it, unless it is the presence of Per- 
Fi^:cTio2f itself, which is God, It gives light to 
all things, and receives light from nothing ; it 
is the concentration of all light. 

Another observation not less striking, and 
peculiar to Jesus alone : with Him, this truly 
divine perfection, which seems so much ele- 
vated above humanity, inaccessible to our 
weakness, is nevertheless the most practical, 
the most imitable, the most fruitful, the only 
one fruitful in imitators and disciples. It pro- 
poses itself for imitation to all men, to the 
child and the aged man, to the ignorant and 
the learned, the poor and the rich, to the 
beo;inner as much as to him who has lono; 
persevered. It seems made for each one in 
particLil.ir. It adapts itself to all, and reforms 
all ; it is perfection for all ! 

Who does not discern here the stamp of 
Divinity ? Can man do any thing of all 
this ? 

•Finallv, the last trait of the perfection of 
Jesus Christ ; superhuman^ like all the otherSj 



92 SIIOKT AND FAMILIAR ANSWEKS 

and, like all tlie others^ peculiar to Him alone: 
His perfection is without excess. 

Man always carries his good qualities to ex- 
cess. Feeling himself weak, he ])refers, from 
fear of tailing, to exceed even in good. 

St. Vincent of Paul was humble, but he ap- 
pears to carry to excess his low opinion of him- 
Belf ; St. Charles was austere, but his austerity 
appears alarming to iis ; St. Francis was poor, 
but his self-imposed priv-ations are almost car- 
ried too far, &c. ; human weakness pierces 
throuo:li the heroism of their virtues. — In Jesus 
Christ, the good is perfectly true and genuine ; 
nothing is extravagant; the perfection of the 
divine nature is made manifest, and blends 
itself with the real and virtuous emotions of 
human nature. In Him all the man appears. 
The God and the man are complete. 

And on this account, this Model so perfect 
never causes any to despair ; on the contrary, 
it is sweet, mild, and amiable ; it is the reality 
of a virtue, both perfect and possible, proposed 
for imitation to mankind by a God-man, as 
truly man as He is God. 

What a singular and marvellous fact ? What 

a prodigy is Jesus Christ ! Who would 

not exclaim : •' Behold the finger of God ! '' 

4thly. And His doctrine ! And that word, 
which, during eighteen centuries that it has 
been meditated on, discussed, attacked, dis- 



TO OBJECTIOKS AGAIKST RELIGION. 93 

sected by every variety of knowledge, by the 
most jjrofound geniuses, has excited all kinds 
of hatred, been applied to commnnities, na- 
tions, individuals, has never been convicted of 
error !— ^' It ever remains the light of the 
world ;'' and each attepipt to destroy it does 
but verify what the Master predicted. " Heaven 
and earth shall pass awoy^ but my wobds shall 



KOT pass away." 



Wherever this doctrine is knovvm, penetrate 
civiliz.itioij, moral and intellectual life, pro- 
gress, enlightenment ; where it does not reign, 
and iii proportion as it is less and less known, 
degradation, lethargy, barbarism, death, mark 
its absence. 

It is this doctrine, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, 
which has founded our modern society ; which 
has become the guide, the directing torch of 
human reason and philosophy ; and whether 
voluntarily or involuntarily, it is with the 
very means that Jesus Christ has given them, 
that unbelieving Christians argue against 
Him. 

"Never man!^'^ said the Jews, '^ spake as did 
this man I '^ Open the gospel, in fact. What 
imheard-of power ! What authority! What 
calmness ! What celestial simplicity it mani- 
fests ! Jesus teaches what He sees, what 

He knows. He does not argue; He does not 
seek to prove, to convince ; His word is suffi- 
cient for Him ; He is sure. Pie affirms. None 



94 SHORT Ai^TD FAMILIAR ANSWERS 

but God made man, and speaking to men, can 
use such language. 

Furthermore, the word of Jesus Christ 
proves its own divine origin, for it unceasingly 
affirms His divinity. 

He calls Himself God^ the Son of God^^ 
Christy the Truth, the Life^ the Saviour^ the 
Messiah. » 

If thou art tlie Christ," said the Jews to 
Him, " tell us." — " I speak to you^'^ He answered 
them, '^ and you do not believe Me. The miracles 
that I do in the name of My Father hear witness 
of Me. I and my Father are oneP They de- 
sired to stone Him, instead of believing these 
words : '' Why Avould you stone Me '^ " said 
Jesns to them. 

''Because of Thy blasphemy, and because, 
heiag mcin^ Thou makest Thyself God, 

The woman of Samaria spoke to Him of 
Christ, the Redeemer, who should save man- 



^ By ** Son of God " Jesus Christ did not mean, nor did 
the Jews to whom He spoke understand him to mean, a 
just man, a, child, of God, a friend of God. He meant, 
and they understood thereby, the diiine Word, Ihe second 
person of the holy Trinity, the eternal and only Son of 
God, God, like the Fathe/ and the Holy Ghost. There- 
fore, when Jesns told Caiaphas that He was *' the Son of 
God,'* the liirrh priest and tlie Pharisees cried out. He hlas- 
lihemetli, and condemned Him to death as a blasphemer, 
Decause Re made Himself God. 



TO OBJECTIOKS AGAIKST EELIGIO^n^ 93 

kind, and teacli tliem all truth. '' I am He,'"* 
said He to her, '' Iw/io speak to tlieer 

Another time He is teaching the assembled 
crowd: ^^ Verily^ verily^ I say unto you, As the 
Father raises up the dead to life, so does tlie Son 
give life to those ivhom He chooses .... . . so that 

ALL MAY RENDEK TO THE SoN, HONOR EQUAL TO 
THAT WHICH IS BEE TO THE FaTHER.'" 

'^ He THAT HOKORETH NOT THE SoN, HONORETH 

KOT THE Father." 

He was instructing a learned Jew, who had 
come to consult Him : '' No man," said he to 
him, '• shall go up into heaven^ save He who 

CAME DOWN FROM HEAVEN, THE SoN OF MaN 
WHO IS IN HEAVEN. 

'' God so lovedj the luorld^ that He gave His 
ONLY BEGfOTTEN SoN, SO that all lubo believe in 
Him may not perish^ but may have eternal life, . . , 
Ood sent His Son into the loorld^ that the loorld 
might he saved by HimP 

"'He who believes in Him shall not he con- 
demned^ BUT HE WHO BELIEVES NOT IS ALREADY 
JUDGED, BECAUSE HE DOES NOT BELIEVE IN THE 
ONLY BEGOTTEN SoN OF GoD." 

He has just healed the man born blind ; the 



^' Tills is an exact translation of tlie Frencli : in out 
Eno'lish Bible the reading- is, that all men may HONOi?: 
THE Son as theiy honor the Fatheti, 



96 SHORT AND FAMILIAR ANSWERS 

latter, driven from the synagogues by the 
Pharisees, because he declared that his bene- 
factor was at the least a prophet, finds Ilim, 
and throws himself at His feet, '' Do you be- 
lieve in the Son of God ? " Jesns asks him. — 
^' Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in 
Him ? " " Thou hast both seen Him, and it 
IS He that talketh with thee.'' And the 
poor man answers, " 1 believe, Lord ! " and, 
prostrating himself, he adores Him. 

Is this enough, or will you hear more? 

" Abraham, your father," said He to the 
Jevv^s, " rejoiced to see my day, he saw it, and 
was glad." 

The Jews answered, " Thou art not yet fifty 
years old, and hast thou seen Abraham V ^ 

Jesus said to them, ''Before Abraham was, 

I AM." 

To the sister of Lazarus, who comes to be- 
seech Him to raise her brother to life. He 
saith : '' I am the Resurrection and the Life. 
lie ivho believes in Me shall live^ even after 
death. And whosoever lives in Me and believes 
in Me, shall not die eternally. Do you be-- 
lieve ? " '' Yes, Lord," answers the faithful 
Martha ; " I believe that Thou art the 
Christ, the Son of the living God, who art 
;oME INTO the world." 

* Abraham lived twenty centuries before Jesus Christ. 



TO OBJECTIOII^'S AGAINST RELIGION. 97 

And a short time afterward, wJieii He had 
come before the ah^eady putrid corpse of Laza- 
rus, he adds these divine words^ ^' My Father, I 
thank Thee that Thou hast heard Me, and 1 
know that Thou hearestMe always, but because 
of tlie people who stand about have I said it : 
that they may helieve that Thoii haH sent Jtfe." 

And He cried aloud, '* Lazarus, come forth ! '^ 
And the dead arose, yet bound, — face, hand^ 
and feet, — with the cerements of the grave ! . . . . 

One might cite the whole of the gospels. 
Read, above all, the ineffable discourse before 
the Last Sapper, (St. John, xiv. 6th and follow- 
ing verses,) " I am," said He, '' the way, the 
TRUTH, AND THE LIFE. No mail cometh to the 
Father hut hy Me, If you had knoiun Me^ you 
ivould^ ivithout douht^ have known My Father 

also. He THAT SEETH Me SEETH THE FaTHER 

ALSO." 

" Whatsoever you shall ask the Father in My 
name^ that ivill I do ; that the Father may he glo- 
rified in the Son, If any one love Me^ he luill 
keep My ivord, and My Father -will love him^ and 
WE will come to him^ and make our abode with 
hiiinP 

Even upon the cross, Jesus Christ affirms 
that He is God, and speaks as God. The good 
thief, crucified beside Him, enlightened by 
faith, exclaims: '"Lord, remember me when 
Thou comest into Thy kingdom," '^ This day," 
7 



98 SHORT AND FAMILIAR ANSWERS 

Jesus answers, '' thou shalt be with Me in Par- 
adise," 

Finally — for I must limit myself — the unbe- 
lieving Thomas sees Him, and touches Him 
after the resurrection ; convinced by this evi- 
<lence, he falls at His feet, and exclaims, ^^My 
Lord and my God ! " Far from blaming him 
for this expression, Jesus approves of it : " Be- 
cause thou hast seen, Thomas/' said He to him, 
^* thou hasi helteved. Blessed are they who 

HAVE NOT SEEN, AND YET HAVE BELIEVED ! " 

Mark what language ! what a manner of act- 
ing! what omnipotence! How He causes 
Himself to be called Ood! How He has the 
tone and the accent of God ! How He claims 
the right of divinity^ faith, adoration, prayer, 
love, sacrilice ! 

Now, the inference to be drawn from all this 
is very simple, either Jesus Christ speaks the 
timth^ or that which is not the trutli. There is no 
■medium here, 

1st. If He speak the truth, He is what He 
calls Himself, fie is God. He is the eternal 
Son of the living God, blessed from all ages, 
and all His words, His actions, His miracles, 
His triumphs, are easily explained. Nothing 
is impossible to a God. 

2dly. If Ho does not speak the truth. He is 
(a blasphemy 1 hardly dare write, though it be 
to coiifoiiud it) either a madman or an impostor. 



TO objectio:n"S agai^tst eeligion'. 99 

A inadinan^ if He has not the conscious con- 
trol 01 His own words and actions, — ct detestable 
impostor^ if he utters falsehood with a knowl- 
edge of what he is doing. 

Will you dare to say this ? Jesus Christ, the 
perfection of wisdom, a madman ! ! ! Jesus 
Christ, the most virtuous, the most holy of 
men, a har, a sacrilegious impostor ! ! ! 

One must have lost his reason, and his moral 
sense, to put forth such insanity. 

Then he is God. 

Jesus Christ stands before human reason, as 
He stood before Caiaphas on the day of His 
Passion. " I adjure thee," said the high priest 
to Him, ''in. the name of the living God^ to tell 
us if Thou art the Christy the Sou of God?^^ 
Jesus answered, ^'Thou hast said it. I am 
He." 

Either one must believe or disbelieve this 
affirmation ; there is no medium possible. 

Either one must admit Jesus Christ in the 
most uncjualified manner, or reject Him en- 
tirelv. '^ Whoever is not for Him is ao^dnst 
Him," whosoever does not adore Him, cannot^ 
without being foolish and inconsequent, praise, 
admire, or laud Him as a ivise or great Alan, or 
as a Saint 

'^ But, perhaps," some one will say, " He only 
called Himself God to advance His doctrines 
with greater readiness I " 



rOO SHORT AND FAMILIAR ANSWERS 

The difficulty remains entire ; because no in- 
tention, however good, could possibly excuse 
such a huge and continuous imposture, and one 
would be obliged no less to conclude that the 
whole life of Jesus Christ, having beeu the 
affirmation of His divinity, was nothing but a 
tissue of madness and blasphemies. 

But apart from this reason, the supposition 
is absolutely inadmissible. In fact: 

1. Such a iiction, in the first place, would 
have destroyed His whole work, and annihi- 
lated all Flis doctrines. Jesus Christ has but 
one end in view, that of destroying idolatry, 
and re-establishing the universal reign of truth ; 
by truth to restore virtue and holiness on earth ; 
render to God that which belongs to God alone, 
the heart of man, his faith, his self-devotion, his 
love. With this thought, could He, unless He 
were really God, assume the divine title and 
claim its rights, without ruining fundamentally 
His whom design ? 

2. This pretended means^ designed to support 
His doctrines, would precisely have been their 
greatest foe. 

The impossihle -psiYt^ humanly speaking, of the 
preaching of Jesus Christ and of His apostles, 
was chielly the inducing the nations to admit 
the divinity of that Jesus, poor, humiliated, a 
Man of sorrows, who died on a cross. Is it not 
this which is the most repugnant to reason in 
the Christian teaching ? Is not this precisely 



TO 0BJECTI0I*5-S AGAIKST RELIGIOlS^ 101 

the stumbling-block of the unbeliev^er ? And 
is it such a means that Jesus Christ would have 
chosen to insure the adoption of His religion? 
But tlmt would have been the lieight of folly ! 
IIov/ strange a bait is that which terrifies a 
hundred times more than the hook itself! 

The divinity of Jesus Christ once admitted, 
I conceive that it becomes a powerful means ot 
inducing belief in His doctrines. But how 
could this hypotliesis have been generally ad- 
mitted ? and how, without some evide)it and 
irresisiihle manifestation of divine omnipotence, 
could Jesub Christ have been regarded as 
God! 

N'o, no ; I repeat it ; in the presence of the 
superhuman character of Jesus Christ, in the" 
presence of His words, His affirmations, His ac- 
tions, and of Mis work, which is Christianity, 
there is tor a reasonable and sincere man but 
one course to adopt: it is to fall at His feet, 
and adore the infinite love of a God, who has 
so loved the world that He has given to it His 
only Son, and to exclaim with St. Thomas in 
his regenerated faith, ^' My Lord and MY 
GOD J Dominus mens et deus meus !" 



t02 SHORT AND FAMILIAR A]?i:SWERS 



it is better to be a protestant than a 
catholic; one is just a& much a christian^ 
aisid it is nearly the same thing. 

Answer. Yes, nearly ; as base coin is nearly 
the same as genuine. The only difierenc^e is^ 
that one is genuine and the other forged* 

Catholic and Protestant, '^ nearly the same 
Sling ! " — You certainly know neither the one 
nor the other,, then. 

What the Catholic Church affirms, the Prot- 
estant denies. 

The Catholic has, for his rule of faith, the 
infallible teaching of the Church. — The Prot- 
estant rejects the Church, despises Her autho- 
rity, and only acknowledges the Bible, which 
he interprets as he can, and as he likes. 

The Catliolic derives a Christian life from 
the seven Sacraments of the Church, and main- 
tains it principally by means of the Sacraments 
of Penance and the Holy Eucharist. — The 
Protestant does not recognise those sacra- 
ments; he has only preserved baptism, and 
^ven of that he has altered the notion J' 



* The author spsaks liere from tlie Catholic point of 
viev/, as it is with bad Catliolics he is aro-mno\ Protes- 
tants think they retain tlie TCucharist, under tho name of 
the Slipper ; but the writer does not consider that tliey 
retain it in reality 



TO OBJECTIOZ^S AGAIKST RELIGION. 103 

The Catholic adores, in the Holy Eucharist, 
Jesu§ Cheist, who is really present in it. — ^The 
Protestant sees in it only an empty symbol, a 
fragment of bread. 

The Catholic venerates, invokes, and loves 
the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, 
made man. — The Protestant shows an invin- 
cible indifference to her, which is often pushed 
even to hatred and scorn. 

The Catholic venerates, in the Pope, the 
Vicar of Jesus Christ, the head of the faith- 
ful, their supreme pastoi', and the infallible 
Doctor of the law of God. — The Protestant 
only sees in him the Antichrist, the vicar of 
SataUy and the enemy of truth, &€. &c. &c. 

Protestantism is to Catholicism what no is 
to yes^ and tliat too in the fundamental points 
of religion. But for this discordance, however, 
they are precisely the same thing. 

" It 'is better^''' you said, '"^ to he a Protestant 
than a Caihdicr' No. For that onAj is hesty or, 
rather, that only is g^ooti, which \%drue. The 
rest is worth nothing. 

Start, then, from this evident principle. 
There is no medium between truth and error. 
Tliat which is not true is false, and that which 
is not false is true. 

In religion, this principle is still more im- 
portant than in any other matter. There is 
only one true religion ; we have seen this, and 
it IB the religion of Jesus Christ, which em- 



104 SHORT AIST FAMILIAR ANSWERS 

braces all ages, all nations, all men, and wliicb^ 
for this i-eason, has always been called Catholic 
or ziniversaL 

The Protestant sects are not this one Catho- 
lic religion of Jesus Christ; the name alone 
shows it ; consequently^ theirs is not the true 
religion ; it is an error, a corruption of Chris- 
tianity. This of itself would be sufficient. But 
let us examine still further. 

Jesus Cvhrist, the founder of Christianity, is 
its only Master. No one has ever denied it. 

No man has then the right of teaching or 
preaching this religion^ if he is not charged to 
do so by Jesus Christ. 

Suppose 1 were to say to you r *-' My friend,, 
you are a Christian. The Christian religion 
teaches you such and such doctrines, imposes 
upon you such and such duties ! Well ! I have 
come to reform all that. Instead of believing,, 
as you have hitherto done, believe what I 
teach you ; I release you from sucb and such 
of your duties whicli are irksome, I permit you 
to do Avhat your religion forbids/' &c. 

You would certainly reply^ "But who are 
you, to do that? My religion has but one 
master,, Jesus Christ. Is it he who has sent 
you? When, and in what manner? Prove 
to me your divine mission.^' 

Well, when M. Chatel, Michael Vintras^ 
and Company, in our own times^ and Luther, 



TO OBJECTIONS ACTAi:tTST RELIGIOK. 105 

Calvin, Zuinglius, Henry VIII., three hundred 
years ago, set themselves up as Reformers of 
the Christian Religion, this obstacle, suggested 
by the most ordinary common sense, might 
have arrested them at the first step. 

Many persons have addressed these ques- 
tions to them ; they have never been able to 
answer them ;'^' and the evil passions of human- 
ity have alone caused their new religion to be 
received. 

It is, then, only those whom Jesus Christ 
has sent, who are entitled to teach His religion. 
But these envoys of heaven, these doctors, the 
onl?/ lawful doctors of religion, these lawful 
pastors of Christian nations, w^ho are they? 
How can they be recognised ? — -By means of 
two very simple observations. 

The first is a great historical fact, so self- 
evident, that candid Protestants do not even 
think of denying it, it is this : that the Pope, 



* Calvin ^\'^s very desirous on one occasion of per- 
forming a miracle, to reply to the difficulty sa^gested. 
Unfortunately, lie set to work very foolishly, or rather, I 
should say, God frustrated his measures. He had hribed 
a man to counterfeit a dead person so as to pretend to 
raise him up to life. On his arrival with his friends, the 
justice of God had struck his accomplice, who was really 
dead in his bed. 

Luther became furious when the proofs of his mission 
were demanded of him. He replied by calling the indis» 
creet questioner an ass, a pig, a dog, a Turk possessed by 
a devil, &c. 



106 SHORT AKD FAMILIAR ANSWERS 

tlie actual Bisliop of Rome^ is the Head of the 
Catholic Religion, and that he is descended by 
an iininterrapte<l succession of Pontiffs from 
the Apostle Saint Peter; that from all ages 
Catholic Bishops have been regarded as the 
successors of the Apostles. 

The second^ is the explanation of this fact 
by the mere reading of those passages in the 
Gospel where our Lord Jesus Christ gives to 
His Apostles, and to them alone^ the sacred mis- 
sion to preach His religion to all mankind^ and 
chose among the apostles themselves^ Saint 
Peter, to be the Head of the whole Chnrchy 
the bond of unity between the pastors and the 
faithfuh the immutable foundation of the living 
edifice that He should raise up. 

What, I ask, can be more cleafy more salemn 
than this pastoral and doctrinal mission of the 
apostles? '^Receive the Holy Ghost/' said 
the Son of God to them ; "as My Father has 

SENT Me, so send I YOU. Go^ TEACH AEE 

i-TATiONS ; baptize tJiem in the name of the Father ^ 
and of the Son^ and of the Holy Ghost. Preach 
the Gospel to all menJ' " Behold, I am with 

YOU EVEN TO THE CONSUI^D.IATION OF ALL AGES, 

He who hears you hears Me, and he who 

BESPLSES YOU DESPISES Me."''^" 



* Last chapters of the Gospels of St, Matthew and St^ 
Mark. 



TO OBJECTtOKS AGAINST RELIGION. 107 

And do not these words also of the Lord to 
St. Peter, bear their evidence with them ? 

" Thou art Peter^ and upon this eock I will 
BUILD My Church, and the gates of hell shall 
not prevail against it. I w^ill give to thee 

THE KEYS of THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, AND 
WHATSOEVER THOU SHALT LOOSE ON EARTH SHALL 

BE LOOSED EST HEAVEN." ^ By tliese words, 
according to the belief of all Christian ages, 
w^as St. Peter established by Jesus Christ as 
Head, immutable foundation-stone, infallible 
doctor, and pastor of His whole Church, and 
of all His disciples. 

It is hardly necessary to argue on these 
words, so clear and obvious is tlieir meaning. 

1. There is a Christian Church, since Jesns 
Christ said, My Church. 

2. There is hid one Church ; for He does not 
say : My Churchf^s^ but My Church. 

3. And among all those Churches which call 
themselves the one only Church, which is the 
true, the only true one ? That founded on Sto 
Peter, governed by St. Peter, taught by St. 
Peter, who still lives in his successor; and, 
therefore, the Eoman Catholic Church, of 
which the Pope, St. Peter's successor, is the 
Pontiff and the Head, is that Church. 

What is simpler than this mode of reason- 
ing? It once proved powerful enough to con- 

* St. Matth. xvi. 



108 SHOKT AXD FAMILIAU AXGWEKS 

vince a Protestant, to whom I suggested it, 
(and who became a Catholic that very day ;) it 
also eftected the conversion of a Russian lady, 
a schismatic. 

On the point of ascending to heaven, the 
Saviour insisted anew, and confirmed vrhat lie 
had given to St. Peter, saving to him, " Feed 
My lambs ; feed My sheep.'' (St. John, last 
chapter.) 

It is, then, to the Pope and the Bishops, the 
actual Pastors of the Catholic Church, who 
alone trace their origin in unbroken succession 
from St. Peter, the chief of the Apostles, and 
to tlie Apostles, that these great promises of 
Jesus Christ are addressed ; it is to them alone 
that the mission of teaching, preaching, and 
preserving religion was given ; it is they, and 
tliey alone^ who are the legitimate pastors of 
Christian nations. With them, and with them 
alone^ Jesus Christ will be to the end of ail 
ages, to keep them free from all error in their 
teaching, and from all defect in the sanctifica- 
tion of souls."^ 

It is, then, by submitting to their authority, 
and in attending to their teaching, that I am 
certain of knowing and practising the true 
Christian Religion. 



* This is what is caUpd the infalUhllity of the Church ; 
it is tbe infaUibillty of Jesus Christ, of God Himself, 
which has been bestovv^ed on it. 



TO OBJECTIONS AGAIKST RELIGION. lOD 

And here take notice of the immense advan- 
tages of that clear, infallible, divine patli of 
authority^ in which the Catholic Church invites 
ns to walk. — How easy it is for a Catholic to 
know, with absolute certainty, what he ought 
to believe, w^hat he ought to avoid, so as to be 
a good Christian ! He has but to hearken to 
the priest, sent by his Bishop, who is in com- 
munion with the Pope, the Yicar of Jesus 
Christ, His visible substitute on earth, by 
whom He teaches, and by whom He decides 
in a sovereign manner what w^e must believe, 
do, and avoid. 

How beautiful and how simple is this ! Re- 
mark, too, wliat perfect unity flows from this 
authority! Everywhere the same faith, the 
same doctrine ; in Rome, in Paris, in China, 
in Asia, Africa, America, everyAvhere the same 
real religious teaching, that of the Vicar of 
Jesus Christ Himself! Everywhere the same 
Priesthood, of wdiich the Pope is the visible, 
and Jesus Christ the invisible Head ! Every- 
w^here the same sacrifice, the same worship, the 
same sacraments, the same means of sanctitica- 
tion and of salvation. 

This nnity is so much the more beautiful and 
superhuman, that the Christian community 
governed by the Pope (and it alone) extends 
all over the earth. 

There are Catholics everywhere. Their very 
name indicates this fact, (it was the remark of 



110 SHOET AKD FAMILIAR ANSWERS 

St. Augustine, fifteen hundred years ago:) 
Catholic means universal. The Catholic Church 
embraces all ages, all countries, all nations. 
And the last judgment will be, as our Lord 
Jesus Christ declared, when the Catholic 
Church shall have preached the gospel to all 
the nations of the earth.^ 

Wherever the Catholic Church prevails, she 
shows forth Christian sanctiti/. She produces 
invariably, and in all places, the most sublime 
perfection in those who receive her teaching 
with docility. She is the mother of the saints. 
She has not ceased to give birth to them dur- 
ing nineteen centuries, nor to behold Jesijs 
Christ, her God and Founder, confirming by 
miracles the sanctity of His servants.f 

Protestantism, on the contrary, (as the name 
alone causes us to anticipate,) is a disoirjaniza- 
lion of all this order and harmony, under the 
pretext of reform. There i& revolt in the very 
name. 

Split into a thousand petty sects, who mu~ 
tually anathematize each other, and who only 
Mgree in their common hatred to the ancient 
Church : Lutherans, Calvinists, Zwinglians, 
Anabaptists, Pedobaptists, Moravians, Evan- 
gelicals, Anglicans, Quakers, Pietists, Metho- 
dists, Jumpers, Shakers, &c., (there are more 

* St» Matth. xxiv. 14* \ See chapter xxxvii. 



TO OBJECTIONS AGAINST RELIGION. Ill 

than two hundred of these sects,) Protestant- 
ism is nothing but religious anarchy. 

It has attacked Christianity even in its es- 
sence and constitution. It has rejected the 
fiindamental rule of faith, which is the infal- 
lible teaching and the divine authority of the 
Pope and the Bishops, the only lawful pastors 
and doctors. And thus, while talking loudly 
of faith^ it has destroyed faith^ that is to say, 
the SUBMISSION of the mind and heart to divine 
teaching. The Protestant, in fact, only be- 
lieves his own interpretation of the Word of 
God ; he makes himself the judge in contro- 
versies, in the stead of those whom Jesus 
Christ instituted as judges ; he believes in his 
reason, not in the word of God, which he reads 
in the Bible ; he has no real beliefs he has only 
opinions^ as liable to change as himself, and he 
no longer believes any thing but his ov;n opin- 
ions. Thus are there as many religions as 
there are heads among Protestants. And even 
every head may alter its religion every day. 
I know a very respectable Protestant family, 
consisting of four persons, where each one is 
of a different religion ! ! ! 

For this reason. Protestantism is tossed 
about with every wind of doctrine, changes 
everv vear, everv dav, the symbol of its faith. 
— li To ocls to-dav what it tauo-ht yesterday: 
it has neither unity, antiquity, universality, 
nor stability. 



112 SHOBT AiTD FAMILIAR AKSWERS' 

I defy any Protestant to tell me plainly wliat 
is truthj and what the world ought to believe, 
nnder pain of being considered out of the road 
of Christian truth. 

" You diifer,"^ said Tertullian once to Mon- 
tan^ '' therefore you err." 

Protestantism produces virtues, because it has^ 
preserved some vestiges of truth amidst the de- 
struction it made ; but these virtues bear the 
marks of this mixture of truth and error. They 
are almost ahvays cold and proud, like those 
of the Pharisees. — They exist, in spite of Pro- 
testantism. In reality they are Catholic^ they 
belong to the Church. The more Protestants 
are Protestants, the less have they of real Chris- 
tian virtues ; the nearer they resemble us^ the 
more real and living are their virtues. It has 
been said w^ith justice of Protestant England, 
that of all the sects she was " the least de- 
formed, because she was the least reforraedP ^ 



"^ For the last twenty-five or thirty years, honest and 
religious Protestants have shown a singular tendency to 
draw nearer, as it were, to the Catholic Church. Their 
religion has nothing but its name. They imitate us in a 
variety of ways ; they have adopted our way of preach- 
ing, and their ministers have not nearly so much the 
habit of inveighing, as formerly, against the Church ; 
many take the name of Catholics^ some invoke the Blessed 
Virgin, and believe in the Mass, &c. It is good sense and 
trath which thus gradually overcome the prejudices of 
childhood and sectarianism. 



TO OBJECTIONS AGAIKST KELIGIOK. 113 

Protestantism rejects all that is consoling:, 
tender, and affectionate in religion ; the holy 
presence of Jesus Chkist in the Sacrament of 
His love for ns ; the tribunal of mercy and 
pardon, the love and invocation of the Blessed 
Virgin Mary, that gentle mother of the 
Saviour whom He gave us for a Mother at the 
hour of His death ; the invocation of the 
Saints, our elder brethren, our friends, already 
entered into that land, whither they call us, 
and where they await our coming, &c. 

It has no religious loorship^ properly so 
called, for one could not give that name to that 
which passes in the great bare room which 
they call their Church. 

Have you ever been into one of these ? One 
might fancy, at first, that these are assemblies 
filled with the spirit of religion. — But only look 
closer ; there is not the real Presence of God, 
there ; His love^ above all, is not felt. . . . One 
remembers that the Pharisees were more reg- 
ular than the others in frequenting the syna- 



goofues ! 



The fundamental vice of Protestantism is 
revolt, pride. 

It is, besides, sterile in saints. It has never 
produced one real sister of charity^ that is to 
say, one humble and loving servant of God 
and of His poor. Its zeal is fanatical, its fer- 
vent adherents are visionaries, vague mystics^ 
who believe themselves filled witli the Holy 
8 



114 SHORT AKD FAMILIAR ANSWERS 

Spirit, and to whom this siipj)osed Spirit often 
reveals very strange things. 

Its missionaries are Bible distributors. . . . 
Only compare them to the apostles, or to our 
Catholic missionaries, heirs ot the zeal, charity, 
hardships, and sufferings of the apostles, as 
they are heirs of their faith ! What a differ- 
ence ? 

Its ministers preach without having a mis- 
sion. They are gentlemen, dressed in black, 
and preaching a moral anodyne which may be 
thus summed up : '' Read the Bible, and do as 
you think right — always provided you do not 
become Catholics." 

What is their right to teach others ? Some 
of them own that they are nothing but ordinary 
men, as all Christian men are priests^ and ac- 
cording to some, all Christian ivomen also. . . . 
By what authority do they come and interpret 
the Word of God to their brethren ? Are they 
infalHble ? Since all Christian religion is com- 
prised in the reading of the Bible, why do 
they mix up their human language in the 
matter ? 

These men with wives are no longer the men 
of God, the Church's bridegroonjs, the men 
of devotion, sacrifice, charity, chastity, per- 
fection. . . . 

Thus — to sum up — opposed to the express 
words of Jesus Christ ; opposed to the histor- 



TO OBJECTIONS AGAINST RELIGION. 115 

ical tradition of all past ages ; opposed to the 
idea of iixity, unity, perfection , inseparable 
from the work of a God, — the Protestant sects, 
born, even the oldest, scarcely three hundred 
yeai-s back, the newest composed, altered, aug- 
mented, and restored under our own eyes, in 
this age, — ai^ not, and cannot be tliat one, 
holy, universal, community, or Church, of the 
disciples of Jesus Christ, established and consU- 

tided EIGHTEEN HUNDRED YEARS AGO, hlj die 

apostles of that Divine Master. 

I could yet add other proofs ; I might show 
the absolute impossibility of proving the divine 
inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, and espe- 
cially of the Gospels, without the infallible au- 
thority of the Church ; I might point out the ab- 
surdities which Protestants are obliged to accept 
when they are logical, and desire to remain 
true to their principles ; the hidden, but con- 
sequent connection existing between Protes- 
tant principles and the anarchical doctrines of 
revolutionists, &c. What I have said, how- 
ever, is quite sufficient."^ 



^ One remarkable observation is, tliat one has never 
Bean a good Catholic, well instructed in his faitli and of 
sinc3re piety, become a Protestant in order to lead a bet-^ 
ler life ; Vv^hile those Protestants who become Catholics 
are generally the most pious, enlightened, and respectable, 
persons, according to the testimony of their Protestant 
brethren* 

Often (and now a-days more than ever) Protestants 



116 SHORT a:n'd familiar answers 

To be a Christian^ then, it is not enough to 
believe that Jesus Chrtst is God, but we 
must also believe all that He has revealed to 
us. 

Therefore, to he a Christian and a Catholic^ is 
to be one and the same thing. 

Therefore, out of the Catholic Church, there 
is no real Christianity, and as St. Cyprian, 
bishop and martyr, proclaimed sixteen hundred 
years ago: '' Noxe can have God for his 
Father, w^ho will not have the Church 
for Mother." 

Therefore, a Protestant who knows the true 
Church, the Roman Catholic Church, governed 
by the Pope, is obliged to return to it under pain 
of losing his own soul-. In religion, more than 
in any thing else, we are bound to quit error 
as soon as we recognise it, and adhere to 
truth. 

Therefore, finally, it is no more true to say, 
" I may be a Catholic, a Protestant, a Schis- 
matic, without ceasing to be a Christian," than 
to say, ^' I may be a Turk, heathen^ Jew, or 



have become Catholics at the moment of their death; 
NEVER did a C?.tholic change his faith at this awful hour, 
wben truth alone stands face to face with the soul to 
judge it. 

This observation would alone suffice to decide the 
question which now occupies us, and to make us conclude 
in favor of the truth of the only Catholic religion. 



to OBJECTIONS AGAINST RELIGIOX. 117 

Christian, without ceasing to belong to the 
true religion.""^ 



XXI. 

PROTESTAKTS HAVE THE SAME GOSPEL THAT 
^VE HAYE. 

Answer. They have the letter ; they have 
not the spirit. 

" ISTow, the letter Idlleth,'' said the apostle 
St. Paul, "but the spirit giveth life."— The 
letter of Holy Scripture kills the Protestants, 
as that of the prophecies killed the Jews; 
because, like the Jews, the Protestants reject 
the sacred teaching of those whom God sends 
to explain the letter. The Jews rejected the 
teaching of Jesus Christ and His apostles, and 
they are lost ; Protestants reject the teaching 



* We are not afraid to press the subject of Protes- 
tantism a little strongly, on account of a sort of propa- 
gandism which has been of late revived by Protestant 
ministers in various countries. In Paris particularly, 
tliey have divided the city into sections, and they bestir 
themselves greatly to found schools, and attract to them 
XhQ children of the working classes. 

There is besides a latent connection between Protestant 
principles and those revolutionary doctrines v*diich agitate 
France. The fatlier of our anarchists Avas Calvin, and 
the father of (.^alvin was the Tempter himself, one may 
almost say, " F<?^ ex patre dldbolo esth." " I will not sub- 
mit myself." JVofi serciam. It Is the motto of them 
aU. 



118 SHORT AND FAMILIAR ANSWERS 

of the lawful Pastors of the Church, and they 
are in the way to be lost. 

The Church was before the Scripture. The 
Church is the divine institution founded by 
Jesus Christ, to pi^serve, explain, preach, 
defend, and prac-tically apply Christian revela- 
tion, and, consequently, the Holy Scripture, 
the principal part of that revelation. 

It is the Church, and the Church alone, that 
teaches us wfallibly, in the name, and by the 
authority of Jesus Christ, the divine inspira- 
tion of the holy books. It is she alone that 
distinguishes them in a sovereign manner from 
the books which were not inspired. It is she 
alone that decides the true meaning of obscure 
or contested passages, by the light of the same 
Spirit which inspired the books themselves. It 
is from her, indeed, that Protestants have re- 
ceived those books. 

Without the Church, the Bible and the 
Gospels are nothing but a dead letter, nothing 
but words. Therefore, the great St. Augustine 
boldly said, to the heretics of the fourth cen- 
tury, who opposed to him texts of Scripture 
ill-understood, ''I would not believe in the 
Gospels without the authoritv of the Catholic 
Church." ^ 

* " Edangelio non crederem, nisi me cogeret Eccleaice, 
CatJioliccB autoritasl " 



TO OBJECTIOKS AGAIXST EELIGION, 119 



XXII. 

AN HONEST MAN OUGHT NOT TO CHANGE HIS 
RELIGION. WE OUGHT TO REMAIN IN THE RELI- 
GION IN WHICH WE WERE BORN. 

Ansaver. Yes, when we are born in the 
true religion, which is the Catholic religion. 

But when we have not had the happiness of 
being born a Catholic, and we come to discover 
the true faith, not only is it permitted^ but 
ahsolately necessary^ under pain of committing 
otherwise a great sin, to quit the Protestant 
sect, (or other,) in which we were brought up. 

This is not apostacy. An apostate is one who 
abandons truth for error. 

To abandon error to return to truth, is to 
accomplish the will of God ; is to perform an 
act supremely reasonable, legitimate, loyal ; is 
to act according to one's conscience, to fulfil 
the most sacred of duties. 

It is, besides, to perform an act of heroic 
virtue. — 'For the person who thus becomes con- 
verted has nearly always to brave a terrible 
storm, reproaches, contempt, insult, tears, the 
supplications of his family, of friends, of all 
the members of the religion he is about to 
renounce, and of its ministers above all, 
wounded by this desertion. 

Then should he call to mind those ecreat 



120 SHORT AKD FAMILIAR ANSWERS 

words of the Saviour. '' I am not come to 

BRING PEACE, BUT THE SWORD ! For I am COlUe 

to set a man at variance against his father^ and 
the daughter against her mother^ and the daughter- 
in-laio against Iter mother-in-law, . . . And a 
man'^s enemies shall be they of his oiun household. 

'''He that loveth father or mother ^inore than 
Me^ is not worthy of Me ; and he that loveth son 
or daughter more than J/e, is not worthy of Me. 

" And he that taketh not up Ids cross^ and fol- 
loweth Ale^ is not loorthy of Me, 

" And you shall be hated by all men for 
My name's sake ; but he that shall perse- 
vere UNTO the end, he SHALL BE SAVED." 

A celebrated Protestant, Madame de Stael, 
in a religious discussion, wliicli she had herself 
provoked on the subject of a change of reli- 
gion, had recourse to this very trite defence : 
'' 1 loish to live and die in the religion of my 
fathers,^'' — "And /, Madani^ in the religion of 
my grandfathers^^ replied her witty adversary. 

All have heard the sensible reason which 
decided Henry IV., a Protestant, to become a 
Catholic. He was present at a conference 
between certain Catholic doctors and Protes- 
tant ministers. '' Can I be saved in the Cath- 
olic Church ? " he demanded of the ministers 
when the discussion was brought to a close. 
'' Yes, Sire/' they answered, '^ but you will be 
saved more easily by remaining in the reformed 
reliu^ion." 



TO OBJECTIONS AGAINST EELIGION. 121 

'^ And you, gentlemen," said the king to the 
Catholic doctors, '' what is your opinion ? " 
" We think, Sire, and we positively declare to 
you, that having once known which is the true 
Church, you are absolutely obliged to enter it, 
and that salvation is no longer possible for 
3^our sonl in Protestantism." 

" I go, then, for the most snre side," con- 
cluded the king, as he rose from his seat ; 
'^ since all the world agrees that I can be 
saved as a Catholic, I shall become a Catholic." 

And he abjured his errors. 



XXIII. 

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH HAS HAD ITS DAY. 

Answer. Behold nearly nineteen hundred 
years that she has existed, and nearly as long 
a time that the same thing; has been said of 
her. 

Every age, every impious wretch, every 
inventor of a sect or heresy, thinks he is at 
last arrived at that famous day when the 
Catholic Church is to be buried never to rise 
again ; each of them thinks he is destined to 
intone the '^ Be Profundis " of the papacj^, of 
the Catholic priesthood, of the mass, and of 
all the ancient articles of the Church's faith 
. . . and, nevertheless, the day comes not. 

Thus, in the first century of Christianity^ 



133 SHORT AXD FAMILIAK AKSWERS 

one of the proconsuls of the Emperor Trajan 
wrote to him, '' Before long, thanks to perse- 
cution, this sect will be crushed, and we shall 
hear no more of this God crucified." 

And Trajan is dead, and that God crucified 
reigns ever in the world ! 

In the same manner, three centuries later, 
Julian, the apostate, boasted of '^ preparing the 
grave of the Galilean," that is, of annihilating 
His religion and His Church 

And Julian is dead, and the Galilean and 
His Church live still ! 

So, in the sixteenth century, Luther, that 
revolutionary monk, who made a religion out 
of pride and revolt, spoke of the papacy as of 
a superannuated institution about to perish for 
ever : " Oh, Pope ! " said he, '* I was thy tor- 
ment during my life-time ; after my death I 
shall prove thy destruction !".... 

And Luther is dead, and his Protestantism 
is melting away on all sides ! And the papacy 
remains more living, more flourishing, more 
venerated than ever ! 

In like manner, Yoltaire, the enemy of 
Jesus Christ, who signed his letters, " Voltaire^ 
the Christ-mocker^ or, ''Let us crush, the ivretch^''^ 
(that is to say, Jesus Christ and His Church,) 
wrote to one of his friends, ^'I am weary of 
hearing that twelve men were sufficient to 
found the Catholic religion ; I want to show 



TO OBJECTIONS AGAINST RELIGION. 123 

the world that one man was sufficient to de- 
stroy it." " Twenty years hence," he wrote 
to another, ''the Galilean wdll have a fine 
game!^'' * 

And twenty years later^ to the very day^ Vol- 
taire died in a paroxysm of despair, calling for 
a priest, whom his friends, the philosophers, 
would not suffer to approach him. 

And the Catholic Church lives still, travers- 
ing the age^, crushing in her peaceful passage 
all those who wish to crush her. 

The same fate will attend our grand modern 
systems, philosophical and social, which mod- 
estly assume to be reformations of the religion 
of Jesus Christ, substitutes for the Catholic 
Church. 

Less formidable than their predecessors, 
these poor people never suspect their weak- 
ness ! They imagine they are producing some- 
thing new, while they only hash up the old 
theme of the Yoltaires, the Calvins, the Lu- 
thers, the Ariuses, &c. &c. 

Have they forgotten the Saviour's words to 
the first Pope and to the first bishops : '' Go^ 
teach all nations^ 1 loill he with you all days^ 

EVEN TO THE CONSUMMATION OF THE W^OKLD." 

■"''* Good cnrcls, cs wg sav in Eno^lisa : R^id ironicaUy, 
inoaniriOr a desperate — a loshio- c-^me : tlie expression 
being as profane as the thoaglit was blasphemous and 
God-defying. 



134 SHORT AND FAMILIAR ANSWERS 

Have they forgotten what He said to the 
chief of the apostles : " Thou art Peter^ and on 
this rock I will huild my Churchy and the gates 

OF HELL shall NOT PREVAIL AGAINST IT? " 

What God has founded, can they hope to be 
able to destroy ? 

No, the Catholic Church has not ''had her 
day ;" her day will never come to an end, until 
the world shall have come to an end. 

The Chnrch fears nothing ; she knows what 
is the divine principle of her strength, of her 
life. And she will consign her present adver- 
saries to the tomb, more surely and speedily 
than she has done any of their predecessors. 



XXIY. 

FOR MY PART, I WANT THE PURE GOSPEL 

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY. 

Answer. And I too, I wish that, and no 
other; and I possess it, if I am a good Catho- 
lic ; and you, too, may possess it on the same 
conditions. 

If you are a good Catholic, you practise the 
Gospel maxims in all their purity ; you have 
the same Christianity, the same articles of be- 
lief, the same religion as the early Christians. 

Time has only modified Christianity in some 
of its external forms; the substance is the 



TO OBJECTIONS AGAINST RELIGION. 125 

same, absolutely the same from the time of its 
birth. 

These modifications, or developments, which 
cause unreflecting people to believe that present 
Christianity is different from primitive Chris- 
tianity, are a part of the very nature of things, 
and are visible in all the works of God. 

For instance, is man a different being from 
himself at the ages of one year, ten years, thirty 
years ? No ; evidently it is the same individual, 
developing gradually, and acquiring the per- 
fection of his being. 

So it is with the works of God in the super- 
natural order. 

The Catholic Church, in the time of the 
apostles, was in its germ ; all her resources, 
her power, and vitality were not yet thoroughly 
manifested ; but they existed, ready to be de- 
veloped in ages to come. 

The more we study Christian antiquity, the 
more do we recognise the truth of the above 
assertion. And it is this conscientious study 
which has been the means of bringing back to 
the Catholic religion a vast number of learned 
men, either Protestants or unbelievers, who 
found in the monuments of the first three cen- 
turies of the Church the striking vestiges, and 
the very principle of all our Catholic institu- 
tions ; among others, the spiritual supremacy 
of the bishop of Rome, the successor of St. 
Peter ; his doctrinal authority, as well as that 



126 SHORT A]SrD FAMILIAR ANSWERS 

of the bishops, the apostles' successors; the 
pomp of divine worship ; the sacrifice of the 
Mass, with all the ceremonies that we observe 
this day, and of which the greater part maybe 
traced to the actual time of the apostles ; the 
invocation of the Blessed Virgin, the Mother 
of God ; the invocation of the saints, veneration 
shown to their relics and images ; the seven 
sacraments, among them, auricular confession, 
&c. &c. &c. 

In the catacombs of Rome, particularly in 
that of St. Agnes, vjhich dates from the middle 
of the second cerdury^ there have been recently 
discovered whole chapels containing several 
altars in which the relics of martyrs reposed, 
with paintings, images of the Blessed Virgin, 
a pontifical chair, vessels for holy water, con- 
fessionals, etc. 

The credulity of the world is then greatly 
imposed on, when it is asserted that true Chris- 
tianity, that of the early ages, is to be found 
anywhere but in the belief, and practice of, the 
Catholic religion. 

In all times. Christian and Catholic w^ere 
synonymous words, and good Catholics of the 
present day only differ from those of the first 
centuries by their exterior costume ; in faith, 
in heart, in the good works they perform, they 
are the same. 
. All heresies have had the same pretensions 



TO OBJECTIONS AGxVINST EELIGIO^ST. 127 

as the would-be reformers of society and re- 
ligion in our days. They repeat what their 
ancestors^ Luther and Calvin, said three cen- 
turies ago : '' We come to reform Christianity, 
by bringing it back to its primitive purity. 
Yon, the Catholic Church, and you Catholic 
priests, understand nothing of all this; you 
have corrupted the truth, the religion, the 
doctrine of Jesus Christ, We alone possess 
these things, and bring them before the world ! 
Let all listen to us ; then human miseries will 
be at an end ; a new era is about to be- 
gin !!"-... 

Let us let them talk, and not believe the first 
word of what they say. 



XXY. 

I HAVE MY OWN RELIGION. EVERY ONE IS FREE 
TO PRACTISE HIS RELIGION AS HE UNDERSTANDS IT ; 
IT IS A MATTER THAT CONCERNS ME ONLY, AND I 
SERVE GOD IN MY OWN WAY. 

Answer. And your loay^ is not to serve God 
at all, perhaps ! That is like persons who 
mean by "liberty of conscience," "liberty not 
to have a conscience." 

However, every one is not free to serve God 
after his own fashion, he is obliged to serve 
God as God wills to be served, and not other- 
wise. 



128 SHORT A^B FAMILIAR AKSWERS 

It "concerns you," undoubtedly, but it con- 
cerns some one else besides : and that is the 
Church, whom God has commanded to teach 
you how to serve Him. " Go/' said He to the 
first bishop of His Church, " rjo and teach all 

T^ATI0:S3S; TEACH THEM TO OBSERVE ALL MY COM- 
MANDMENTS. He who hears you^ hears me^ and 
he that despises you despises me ; and behold 1 
am ivith you all days^ even to the consummation 
of the loorld?'^ 

The Christian religion (or the Catholic, it is 
the same thing) is the only true religion ; we 
have ah^eady seen this;* it is, then, the only 
real and legitimate service of God. 

Every man, therefore, 

1. Who does not believe all the Christian 
truths which tlie Church teaches, which she has 
summed up in the Apostles' Creed, and ex- 
plains in the Catholic catechisms; 

2. Who does not fulfil to the best of his 
ability the ten commandments of God, and the 
precepts which the pastors of the Church in- 
culcate ; 

3. Who does not- practise the Christian vir- 
tues, (chastity, humility, meekness, obedience, 
detachment from Avorldly things,) &c., and shun 
the contrary vices ; 

4. And who does not employ the means of 
salvation which the Church holds out to her 

* See chapters xviii., xix., and xx. 



TO OBJECTIO-N-S AGAIIsTST RELIGIOK. 129 

cliildren, that is to say, prayer and the sacra- 
ments; 

Every man, I repeat, who does not serve God 
thus, does not serve Him really. He offers to 
God a species of worship which God does not 
desire; he desires to arrive by a different road 
from the one he was directed to follow ; he has 
the appearance of religion, but not its reality. 

Therefore, you are not free to serve God after 
your ow^n fashion ; above all, you are not at 
liberty to abstain from serving Him at all. 



XXYI. 

PRIESTS ARE MEX LIKE OTHERS ; THE POPE AND 
THE BISHOPS ARE MEN \ HOW CAN MEN BE INFAL- 
LIBLE '^ I AM WILLING TO OBEY GOD ; BUT NOT 
MEN LIKE MYSELF. 

Answer. That is as if a soldier were to say, 
" I am willing to obey the king ; but I will not 
obey my general, nor my colonel, nor cap- 
tain : for they are the king's subjects as much as 
I am." 

Would you have much difficulty in answer- 
in 2: him ? 

Xor have I any in answering you. 

The Church, it is true, is composed of men ; 
tlis Pope, the bishops, and priests are men. 
But they are men whom Jesus Christ Him- 
9 



130 SHORT Al^D FAMILIAR AI^SWERS 

self has clothed Math spiritual power and divine 
authority. 

And on this account, they are not men like 
others. 

The apostles, who were the first bishops of 
the Church, were sent to men by Our Lord 
Jesus Christ, to be like another Himself, To 
obey them, was not to obey men, but God, and 
Jesus Christ. To disobey them, and despise 
their teaching, was to disobey God, to despise 
Jesus Christ. " Whosoever despiseth you, de- 
spiseth me." 

It is not to the man that I submit myself, it 
is to God, who exercises His authority over mc 
through him. 

The sole difference then between the com- 
mandments of God and the commandments of 
the Church, is that the first are directly ad- 
dressed to us by God, the latter indirectly by 
His envoys ; but it is always God alone who 
commands. 

Neither is it, properly speaking, the man who 
is infallible in the Pope, it is Jesus Christ, it is 
God who clothes him with His truth, so that 
he may not be able to teach error to Christian 
nations.* 



*It is right to add here, that the Church is only infalli- 
ble in matters of religion, such as the defining of articles 
of faith, rules of morality, general discipline, the liturgy , 
canonization of saints, &c. Our Lord Jesus Christ aids 
the Church in all these things, and always preserves her 



TO OBJECTIONS agai:n'ST religion. 131 

Therefore, in a matter of religious obedience, 
we must not take heed to the personal qualities 
of the Pope, the bishop, or the priest, who ad- 
ministers holy things to us, but only to his 
legitimate authority, to his character of pope, 
of bishop, or of priest. 

This is w\\j the defects, sometimes even the 
vices of priests, (which, thank God, are rare,) 
should not diminish in our minds the respect, 
faith, and love due to religion. 

These weaknesses are attributable to the mcrn^ 
and not to the priest. They cannot attack the 
divine, sacerdotal character with which he is in- 
vested. Did the crime of Judas stain his min- 
istry ! 

It is also the reason why the Mass, or the 
absolution of a bad priest, are as valid as the 
Mass, the absolution of a faithful priest. The 
consecration takes place by the words of one as 
much as the other ; sins are remitted by both 
equally, because these actions belong to t]ie 
priest^ not to the man^ and the sins of a priest 
do not take from him the indelible character of 
the priesthood. 

The bad priest is highly culpable ; but his 
sacerdotal character remains always the same ; 
it is indeed that of Jesus Christ, which nothing 
can ever alter or destroy. 

from enacting any thing contrary to truth or the spiritual 
welfare of the Christian World. 

In these things alone is the Church infallible. 



133 SHORT AND FAMILIAR AIsTSWERS 



XXYII. 

OUT OF THE PALE OF THE CHURCH THERE IS 
NO salvation! what intolerance! I CANNOT 
ADMIT ANY THINa SO CRUEL. 

Answer. See what it is that yon cannot 
admit in the sense in which yon nnderstand it, 
namely, Whoever is not a Cathohc is damned. 

And see, too, how people criticise religion 
because they do not comprehend it, and how 
they ^lake it utter things which are quite con- 
trary to its spirit. 

This saying, indeed, understood as the 
Church teaches, is the most simple of truths, 
and the most rational. ^^ Out of the pale of 
the Church there is no salvation;" in other 
words^ out of light there is darkness ; out of 
good there is evil ; out of truth there is error ; 
out of life there is death, &c. 

Where is, then, the mystery of all this? 
Where is the difficulty ? 

" Out of the pale of the Church there is 
no salvation," simply means, "that we are 
obliged, under pain of incurring mortal sin, to 
believe and practise the true religion, (which 
is the Catholic religion) lohen once it is in our 
power to do so,^^ That means, that we sin, and 
consequently lose our souls, if we voluntarily 
reject truth, when it is shown to us. Is there 



TO OBJECTIO^NTS AGAINST RELIGI0:N^. 133 

any thing very extraordinary in this? Any 
thing to justity the epithets, intolerant, cruel 'i 
A Protestant, or a schismatic person, is not 
damned simply because he is a Protestant, or 
because he is a schismatic. If he is m good 
faith in his error, that is, if he has never had 
the opportunity, from one reason or another, 
of knowing and embracing the Catholic faith, 
he is considered by the Church as making one 
of her children ; and if he has lived according 
to what he has believed to be the true law^ of 
God, he will have the same claim to the joys 
of heaven as if he were a Catholic. 

There are, thank God, a great number of 
Protestants who have this good faith, and even 
among their ministers such are to be found. 
M. de Cheverus, the Bishop of Boston, con- 
verted two of these, most learned and pious 
men ; and after their return to the Catholic 
Church, they declared to the good bishop, that 
until the moment of their acquaintance with 
him, they had never enfertained any doubts as 
to the truth of their religion. 

Let us not, however, disturb our minds wdth 
such questions as the judgment of God on 
Protestants and infidels. On the one hand, 
we know that God is good, and He desires the 
salvation of all, and on the other hand, that he 
is justice itself. Let us serve Him in the best 
w^ay w^e can, and not disquiet ourselves about 
others. 



I 



134 SHOUT AKD FAMILIAR ANSWERS 

People usually confound two essentially dis- 
tinct things ; intoleranct as regards doctrine^ and 
irdolerance as regards 'persons ; and after having 
confused things together, they affect great in- 
dignation, and cry out against the harshness 
and barbarity of the Church ! 

If the Church were to teach what people 
pretend that she teaches, she would indeed be 
liarsh and cruel, and it would be no easy mat- 
ter to cause people to believe in her. 

But the case is widely different. The 
Church is not intolerant, except in a just, 
true, necessary degree. Full of mercy for in- 
dividuals, she is only intolerant to doctrines. She 
imitates God, who detests sin in us, and yet 
shows mercy to sinners. 

Doctrinal intolerance is the essential charac- 
ter of the true religion. The truth, indeed, 
which it is commissioned to teach, is absolute, 
is immutable. All must conform to it, it must 
bend to none. Whoever does not possess it, is 
deceived. There is no compromise possible 
with it ; you must have it entirely or not at all. 
Away from it there is nothing but error. 

The Catholic Church alone has always pre- 
served this inflexibility in her teaching. It is, 
perhaps, the most striking proof of her truth, 
and of the divine mission of her Pastors. 

Indulgent toward weakness^ she has never 
been, and never will be so, toward error, " If 
any one does not believe what I teach," she 



I 



TO OBJECTIO:^rS AGAINST RELIGION. 135 

says in the rules of faith drawn np by her 
councils, "let him be anathematized P^ that is to 
say, cut otf from the Christian community. 
Truth alone speaks with this authorit}^ 
Those who accuse the Church of cruelty, 
with regard to the intolerance they lay to her 
charge, have perhaps never read in Rousseau's 
'^ Social Contract," (he was the great apostle 
of tolerance^) this touching maxim : '' The sove- 
reign may hanish from his states all who do not 
believe the articles of faith of the religion of 
the country. If any one, after having publicly 
acknowledged these same dogmas, conducts 
himself as if he did not believe them^ let him be 
PUNISHED vfiTH DEATH !" (Book iv. c. 8. ) What 
tolerance ! ! ! 

It must be confessed that the Church under- 
stands it better than those who accuse her of 
beino; wantino; in it. 



XXVIII. 

BUT WHAT HAYE YOU TO SAY ABOUT THE 
MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW? 

Answer. Is it the massacre of St. Bartho- 
lomew, then, which prevents your living as 
you ought ? 

Are you afraid, that if you become a good 
Christian, you will be called on to massacre 
your neighbors if they do not serve God ! 



V 



136 SHORT AND FAMILIAR AKSWERS 

The massacre of St. Bartholomew M^as one 
of those deplorable excesses which the mita- 
tioii of civil wars, the craft of politics, the 
frenzy of some fanatics, and the brutal man- 
ners of those times can alone explain. 

Religion is very far, indeed, from approving 
all that is done in her name, and covered with 
her sacred mantle. 

It must be confessed that her enemies have 
singularly distorted this terrible fact. They 
have represented it as the work of religion,, 
while it was really only the work of fanaticism 
and hatred, which religion condemns. 

They have represented it as the Avork of the 
priesthood, while in reality not a single priest 
took any part in it. There were even several, 
among others the Bishop of Lisieux, who saved 
as many of the Huguenots as they could, and 
interceded for them to the king Charles IX., 
&c. 

If there is any one fact now established be- 
yond all dispute, it is this, that the massacre of 
St. Bartholomew was a political coup cVetat,, 
that religion was rather the pretext than the 
cause of it, and that the artful Catharine de 
Medicis, the mother of Charles IX., sought 
much more to get rid of a political party who 
was every day harassing and disquieting her 
government more and more, than to promote 
the glory of God. 

It has pleased a poet of the Voltaire school 



TO OBJECTIONS AGAINST RELIGION. 137 

to represent the Cardinal of Lorraine '' bless- 
ing the poignards of the Catholics." Unfor- 
tunately the Cardinal of Lorraine Vv^as in Rome 
;it that very time, to be present at the election 
of the Pope Gregory XIII. , the successor of 
Saint Pius Y., who was just deceased. 

But these gentlemen do not look so closely. 
^'Lie^ lie always^^^ Voltaire ventured to write to 
his friends, ^' something' will always stick, '^^ ^ 

For the last three centuries the hatred of 
Protestants, and, at a later period, of the Vol- 
tairians, against the Church, has so adulterated 
history, that it is very difficult to discover the 
truth. 

Facts are arranged, added to, suppressed, 
highly colored, according to the prejudices of 
the writers. Crimes are imputed to the 
Church which she holds in utter abhorrence. 
The most odious accusations are cast upon 
rclic>:ion. As a (general rule, distrust the recital 
of historical facts, in which religion is made to 
play a ridiculous, or barbarous, or ignoble 
part. It is possiijle that they may be true ; 
and in such a case, we must throw the whole 
blame on the weak or vicious nature of the 
man who has forgotten what he owed to his 
Cii iracter of priest, bishop, or even of pope, 
perhaps, and who has done evil v/hen it was 
his duty to do good ; but it is also possible, (and 

* Letter to the Marquis of Argens. 



138 SHORT Al^B FAMILIAR AI^SWERS 

this is more frequently the case,) that these 
facts are, if not pure invention, at least so 
much perverted and exaggerated, that one 
can, with justice, tax them with falsehood. 

Nothing is easier than to attack the Church 
in this manner ; but is it a legitimate mode of 
attack ? Is it fair I Is it honest I 



XXIX. 

THERE IS NO SUCH PLACE AS HELL ,' NO ONE 
HAS EVER RETURNED THENCE TO PROVE IT. 

Answer. Certainly, no one has ever returned 
thence ; and if you go there yourself, you will 
not return any more than others. 

If any one person had ever returned thence, 
I would say to you, '' Go there, and you will 
see if there is such a place.'' But it is pre- 
cisely because we cannot make this experiment, 
that it is such ivadness to expose ourselves to 
an evil irremediable, interminable, and un- 
bounded. 

You say there is no hell ? Are you sure of 
it ? I defy you to affirm it sincerely. You 
would have a conviction that none has ever 
had before you, not even the most impiGu-.s of 
men. Rousseau's reply to the question, "Is 
there a hell ? " was, ''I cannot tell^ And Vol- 
taire wrote to one of his friends, who thought 
he had discovered proofs of the non-existence 



TO OBJECTIO:S'S AGAIKST UELIGIO^^T. 13 



of hell, "You are very fortunate. I am far 
from having arrived at that^ 

But I will show you Avhat a terrible affirma- 
tion I can oppose to your perhaps, Jesus 
CriEiSTj the Son of God, made man, declared 
that there was a hell, and one so dreadful, that 
'^ the iire thereof shall never be quenched." 
These are His own words, repeated three times 
over."^ 

And which should I believe by preference ? 
One who has never studied religion, who at- 
tacks what he knows nothing of, who can 
possess no certainty, nothing but douhis on this 
subject ; or He who has said, '' I am the teutii ; 
iieaven and earth shall pass away, but My word 
shall not pass away ? " 

Be not so rash : it is Jesus^ the good Jesus ; 

* We see in the Gfospel tliat our Lord spoke on fifteen 
d'.fferent occasions of the fire of hell. 

See, ainong" otliers, tlie sevea or eight last verses of 
the ninth chapter of St. Mark, where it is said, it is 
better to lose all and suffer all than to be cast into the 
hell of fire, where the worm dieth not, and the fire is 
not extinguished. Also, *' for every one shall be salted 
with fire," that is, at once impregnated with it, consumed, 
and seasoned by it, as salt preserves liesh by becoming 
impregnated with it. See nlso in St. Matthew, at. the 
end of the twenty -fifth chapter, "Depart from me, you 
cursed, into evcTlastmg fire, which w^as prepared for the 
devil and his angels . . . and these shall go into ever- 
lasting pnnhhment, but the just into life everlasting.'' 

And in the fifteenth chapter of Sfc. John, " If any one 
abide not in me," by grace^, '* he shall cast him into the 
fire, and he burneth. " 



140 SHOET AKD FAMILIAR AKSWERS 

Jesus, SO merciful and compassionate, who par- 
dons all to poor repentant sinners ; who re- 
ceives without a word of reproach the guilty 
Magdalen, and the woman taken in adultery, 
the publican Zaccha3us, and the crucified mal- 
efactor ; it is Jesus, I say, who declares to you 
that there is an everlasting hell fire^ and who 
repeats it on fifteen separate occasions in His 
Gospel ! 

Would you pretend to understand mercy and 
goodness better than Jesus Christ ? 

In this matter, you see, more than in any 
other, it is frequently the wicked man^s heart 
which suggests these ideas, and not his reason. 
It is the cry of wricked passions, fearing the 
justice of God, and anxious to stifle the voice 
of conscience, ^^ There is no divine justice ; 
there is no hell ! '^ 

Yet, what matter these cries, these evil pas- 
sions in reality ? Does the blind man who 
denies the light prevent the light from shining ? 
Whether the blasphemer denies or acknow- 
ledges the fact, there exists a hell^ where wick- 
edness is punished^ and that hell is eternal. 

It is the conviction of humanity at large ! 
The certainty of hell is so thoroughly im- 
planted in the depths of the human conscience, 
that one meets with this dogma among all 
nations, ancient and modern, among idolatrous 



TO OBJECTIONS AGAIKST RELIGION. 141 

savages, as among civilized Christians. It is 
so completely a fundamental part of Chris- 
tianity, that, of all the heresies which have 
attacked Catholic dogmas, not one has thought 
of denying it. The truth of hell has alone 
remained standing, intact, amidst so many 
ruins. "^ 

The greatest philosophers, and men of 
genius, not only among Christians, for that is 
a matter of course, but among pagans, have 
admitted its existence : Virgil, Ovid, Horace, 
Plato, Socrates, lastly, the impious Celsus him- 
self, that Yoltaire of the third century. Who 
would presume to be more difficult to persuade 
than these ? 

The doctrine of eternal punishment has, be- 
sides, a complete compensation, according to 
the Church's teaching, in the doctrine of eter- 
nal reward. The one manifests the sovereign 
and infinite justice of God ; the other his sov- 
ereign and infinite goodness. But are not all 
the attributes of God worthy of adoration. His 
justice among them ? I repeat again, few 
would think of denying it, if they did not 
stand m just dread of it. 



* However, among Protestants there has arisen a sect, 
the Universalists, numbering some hundred thousands 
of adherents in the United States, who deny the eternity 
or even the existence of future punishments. The 
denial of it is also a tenet of the Rappists. 



142 SHORT AKD FAMILIAR AKSWERS 

I might add, in this place, many reflec- 
tions on the, use, and even necessity of tlie 
dogma of the eternity of future punishments. 
I might remark that it is this eternal duratioii 
whicli renders it thus useful and necessary; 
as it is the eternal duration and that only 
which alarms the wicked man, and has power 
to arrest the course of his crimes. Man feels 
that he will never come to an end; thence 
ensues the necessity for him of hopes and fears 
of a like immortal stature ; all that is below it 
disappears from his sight. 

If all the crimes which the fear of an eternal 
hell has arrested could be known, men would 
be struck with the necessity of this sanction ; 
and as Grod gives to man all that is necessary 
for him, from the necessity of eternal punish- 
ment, one w^ould conclude its reality. 

I might further show that there is no re- 
pentance possible in hell, and consequently 
there is no pardon possible ; that hell only ap- 
pears incomprehensible to us because we do 
not form an adequate idea of the enormity of 
sin, of which it is the chastisement, and of the 
easy means afforded us of avoiding it, etc. 
But I desire only to abide by the two great 
authorities I have already furnished you with 
touching your doubts : the authority of Jesus 
Christ and that of the human race. 

Let us have a lively faith in the mysteries 
of Christianity. Let us live in accordance with 



TO OBJECTIONS AGAIKST RELIGIOK. 143 

our faith ; let us love God and serve Him ; let 
us imitate Jesus Christ ; let us be good Chris- 
tians, and we shall no longer have any thing to 
do with hell. 



XXX. 

GOB IS TOO GOOD TO BAim ME. 

AisrswER. Accordingly, it is not God v^ho 
damns you, it is you who damn yourself, 

God is no more the cause of hell than of sin, 
which has given birth to hell. 

Wh}^ then does He permit sin ? 

Because, having endowed you with the most 
sublime of all His gifts, that of intelligence^ 
which renders you like to Himself; and pre- 
pared eternal happiness for you, it was not fit- 
ting that He sliould treat you like the animal 
creation, who liave not that intelligence, and 
are only made for this world. 

It v/as not fitting that you should be forced 
to receive God's gifts ; it was needful that you 
should employ your intelligence to accept 
freely, a.nd acquire for yourself the treasures 
of eternal bliss. 

This is v/hy God has given to us, together 
with intelligence, moral liberty^ that is to say, 
the faculty of choosing with our free-will be- 
tween good and evil, of following or shunning 



144 ^HORT AKD FAMILIAR AKSWERS 

tHe voice of our merciful Father whieli calls us 
to him. 

This liberty is the highest mark of honor 
and love that we could receive from God. 

If we abuse it, the fault is ours, not His. 

If I were to give you a wet^pon to preserve 
your life in any danger, would it not be a 
proof of my affection for you ? And if, against 
my will, and despite all the warnings and in- 
structions I gave you, so that you might make 
a good use of it, you were to turn this weapon 
against yourself, should I be the cause of your 
wound ? Would it not be to you alone that 
the blame should be imputed i 

This is what God does for us. He gives us 
the liberty to do good or evil ; but he neglects 
no means to induce us to choose good. In- 
structions, warnings, kind and earnest invita- 
tions, terrible threats, He spares none. He 
loads us with His grace, He surrounds us with 
His assistance ; — but He does j\oi force us : that 
would be to destroy His own w^ork. 

He respects in us the gifts which He has 
'bestowed on us. 

It is, then, the reprobate who runs to his 
own perdition ; it is not God who damns him, 
it is he who damns himself. God does but give 
to each one that which he has freely chose^ 
life or death ; Paradise, the fruit of virtue, — 
or hell, the fruit of sin. 

Two roads lie open before us in this life, the 



TO OBJECTIONS AGAINST KELIGION. 145 

road of virtue and that of vice. The latter 
is sometimes smoother and more attractive 
than the former, particularly for the first part 
of the way ; but it leads to hell, where sweet- 
ness is changed into bitterness ; while the 
<>ther leads to Paradise, w^here our labor is 
changed into an unspeakable rest. 

To reach the gates of Paradise, w^e must 
choose the road that leads to Paradise ; that is 
plain enough. The Catholic priest is the 
ciiaritable guide sent from God, who shows us 
this road. How many, alas ! close their ears 
to his voice! How many lose their way, and 
perish, from not following his directions ! 



XXXI. 

GOD HAS FOEESEEN FEOM ALL ETEENITY 
WHETHER I SHALL BE SAVED OK LOST. I MAY 
DO WHAT I will; I CANI^OT CHANGE MY DES- 
TINY. 

Answer. Suppose your wife were to say to 
you, '' My dear, God has foreseen from all eter- 
nity whether you wdll dine to-day or not. I 
may do what I wdll ; it will happen as God 
has foreseen. I go, therefore, to take a prom- 
enade, and your dinner w^ill prepare itself as it 
may." 
^ ,' Or if one of your children were to say, " My, 
■L dear papa, God has foreseen from all eternity 



146 SHORT AND FAMILIAR ANSWERS 

whether I shall work to-day or play the truant. 
Do what I will, I cannot change my destmy ; 
so I will go and ainuse myself, instead of read- 
ing and writing." 

I think you would not be puzzled to reply 
to. tliem, and especially to bring them to 
reason. 

What you would reply to your wife and 
child, I will now reply to you. 

The prescience of God does not destroy our 
liberty. And although our feeble reason can- 
not thoroughly solve this great mysteiy^ it still 
knows enough about it to be certain of its 
truth. 

1. First, we have all an inward conviction, 
in spite of all arguments, all sophistries, that 
we are free in all our resolutions. 

I feel in writing these lines that it depends 
on my will, to place one word here instead of 
another, to continue or break oif my work, &c. 
You v/ho are reading, you feel, and nothing 
can convince you to the contrary, that it de- 
pends on yourself whether to read this book 
or close it, to sing or to be silent, to rise or re- 
main seated, &c. — You and I, theii, are free, 
agents. 

2. In the second place, is it as difficult, 
really, as it appears, to reconcile our moral 
liberty with tlie prescience of God ? I do not 
think it is, and I only see iu it ci question of 
words. 



TO OBJECTIO:tirS AGAINST KELIGIOIS^ 147 

We measure God by our own standard, we 
speak of Him as of ourselves. We invest 
Him in our minds with our weaknesses ; and 
thereby create for ourselves chimerical diffi- 
culties. 

There is not, to say truth, any prescience in 
God. Prescience oy foresirjlit is to see heforeJiandy 
to see ichcd to ill one day happen. To foresee is 
to suppose a future, not yet arrived. Now 
there is neither /l^^i^re nor succession of time 
with God, but an eternal and immutable pres- 
cut. The past and future exist only for finite 
beings subject to change. We, human crea- 
tures, foresee; but that is just one of the im- 
perfections of our being. God, the perfect 
being, sees, He does not foresee. 

He sees us ac^t. Now I never heard of any 
one saying, that the actual knowledge that God 
possesses of our actions w^as in any way a re- 
straint on our liberty. Yery well, my friend, 
God has no other but that. 

This appears to me very simple, very easy 
to comprehend. There now only remains the 
mystery of God's eternity and immutability, 
or rather, the mystery of His existence. But 
who would ever be mad enough to say, I re- 
fuse to believe in God, because I cannot com- 
prehend the INFINITE ? Use, then, your liberty^ 
under the eye of a merciful God, who will ren- 
der to every man according to his works. \ 



148 SHOET AND FAMILIAR ANSWERS 



XXXII. 

IT IS NOT WHAT GOES INTO THE MOUTH THAT 
DEFILES THE SOUL. GOD WILL NEVER DAMN 
ME FOR A MORSEL OF MEAT. MEAT IS NO 
WORSE ON FRIDAYS AND SATURDAYS THAN ON 
OTHER DAYS."^ 

Answer. Yoii are quite right : it is not the 
meat which would condemn you ; meat is as 
harmless one day as another. What does con- 
demn you is disobedience, Avhich is the cause 
of your eating meat on those days. 

What is not harmless on Friday and Satur- 
day, is the violation of a law which does not 
exist for other days ; it is the revolt against the 
legitimate authority of those pastors whom we 
onght to obey as representing him who sends 
them ; '' Go, I send you forth. He who hear- 
eth 3^ou heareth me; he who despiseth you 
despiseth me." 

It is not, then, a question of any particular 
food or day, or of the palate ; but of the sin 
incurred by refusing to obey a law at once 
obligatory and easy to keep. 

Besides the great and general motive for 
observing all the laws of the Church, we may 
further urge that these laws are uot made at 



* III France there is not a dispensation, as with us, for 
eating- meat on Saturday. 



TO OBJECTIONS AGAIiiTST RELIGIO:^'. 149 

random, or through caprice; they are based on 
solid and important reasons. 

Thus the law of abstinence, the application 
of: which occurs every week, is designed to 
recall incessantly to the Christianas recollection 
the Passion, sufferings, and death of the Sa- 
viour, as well as the necessity of doing pen- 
ance; ic is the public practice of penance 
among Christians, &c. 

l^one biit the ignorant and superficial can 
regard this institution as useless. It is incred- 
ible how efficacious in practice is this simple 
observanca of abstinence on Fridays and Sat- 
urdays, in retaining the soul within the sacred 
influence of reli2:iou3 ideas. 

The laws of the Church, although binding 
on pain of sin, are far from being harsh or 
tyrannical. The Church is a Mother, not an 
imperious mistress. It is quite sufficient that 
serious and legitimate reasons prevent your 
observing abstinence, to insure its dispensation 
in your case. The Church desires to do you 
good, not to do you harm. She desires to 
make you expiate your sins, not to mate you 
in. Illness, weakness of constitution, the fa- 
tigues of constant hard labor, extreme poverty, 
great difficulty in procuring abstinence fare ; 
such are the reasons which dispense with this 
law. 

To avoid any mistake, however, it is better 
to consult beforehand your parish priest or 



150 SHOET AND FAMILIAR ANSWERS 

confessor, who are the proper interpreters of 
the law. 

This observation, which extends to all the 
laws of the Church, shows how^ Avise and mod- 
erate is the authority which enacts them. Let 
us, then, respect this authority from the bot- 
tom of our hearts ; let us leave those to laugh 
who know nothing about it, while we fuliil, 
without murmuring, commandments so simple, 
so judicious, and so profitable for our souls. 



XXXIII. 

GOD HAS NO NEED OF IVIY PRAYEIiS. HE 
KNOWS MY WANTS WriHOUT MY TELLING- THEM 
TO HIM. 

Answer. Undoubtedly He knows them ; 
but you would be very wrong if you were to 
conclude from that that you could dispense 
with prayer. 

God has no need of your prayers, it is true. 
Your prayers and homage in no way change 
His eternal beatitude. But He exacts from 
you this homage, this adoration, these thanks- 
givings, these prayers ; because you. His crea- 
ture and His cliild, owe Him these things. 

To your thought, of which He is the author, 
He has a right ; He desires that you should 
direct that thought to Him ; and that heart 



TO OBJECTIONS AGAINST RELIGION. 151 

which He has also given yon, He has a right 
to its love, and He desires that, by love, you 
freely bestow it upon Him. 

God knows all your wants. That is also 
perfectly true. It is not to make them known 
to llim, that you must acknowledge them to 
Him. It is that you may not lose sight of 
yoar utter helplessness without His succor ; it 
h that you may ever keep in mind your de- 
pendence on Him. 

It iQ for your sake that He has commanded 
you to pray, not for liimself. He ivills that 
you should pray, first, because it is right and 
just that you should adore your God, that you 
should think of that Baing who ever thinks of 
you, that you should love Him who is the Su- 
preme Good and your great benefactor ; and 
finally, because it is good, profitable, and abso- 
lutely needful for you to pray. 

What can be more sublime, what more sim- 
ple, more easy, than prayer ! 

It is the noblest occupation of man in this 
world ; it is that which ennobles, exalts, and 
renders worthy of a reasonable being, all our 
other occupations. 

It is human thought applied to its most 
worthy object, to God. 

. It is the heart uniting itself to a God of in- 
finite goodness, of infinite perfection, of infinite 
love, who can alone fully satisfy it. 

It is the child speaking to bia beloved father. 



152 SHOET AKD FAMILIAR ANSWERS 

It is the friend holding familiar conveisc 
witli his friend. 

It is the pardoned criminal tenderly thanking 
his Saviour, the weak and infirm sinner pray- 
ino; for meix!y to that God who has said, "' I 
will never reject him that cometh to me." 

Prayer is our consolation in all our troubles. 
It is that treasure of inward happiness, wliicli 
nothing can take away from us. For prayer is 
in us; it is ourselves, I may say: because it is 
ourselves thinking of God and loving God. 

It is the same with prayer as with the love 
of God, It is a thing so sweet and consoling, 
that God, in imposing this obligation on us, 
lias only commanded us to be happy. 

Thus, our Lord Jesus Christ, who came into 
the world to render us happy by rendering us 
good, recommends to us nothing so much as 
prayer : '' Pray without ceasing,^' said he, '' and 
do not weary." That is, accustom your soul 
to think of God, and to love Ilim above all 
things. Prayer is the very foundation of the 
Christian life. 

Pray, and with earnestness ; not merely with 
vour lips, but from the bottom of your heart, 
l^e faithful in rendering to God your lilial, 
honiao-e at the beo-inniuii: and at the close of 
the day.'^ Pray in your troubles ; pray in your 

* " Expect notliiiiir," said St. Vincent de Paul one day, 
** of a man who docvs not say liis prayers morning and 



TO 0BJECTI0:N^S against KELIGIOX. 153 

dangers ; pray in your temptations. Pray after 
your faults and tails, to obtain their pardon. 
Pray in all the principal circumstances of your 

Mingle your daily actions with prayer. Thus 
accompanied, nothing is insignificant before 
God ; nothing is lost for Paradise. You will 
be pure and good, if you have constant re- 
course to prayer. Your heart will be at peace. 
In the midst of the sorrows of this life, you 
will have that internal iov which alleviates 
their bitterness; and when the time of your 
probation is at an end, you will reap a hundred- 
fold the fruit of your faithfulness. 



XXXIY. 

I PRAY, AKD DO KOT OBTAIN WHAT I ASK FOR- 
ONLY LOSE IMY TIME. 

Answer. Did St. Monica, the mother of 
8t. Augustine, lose her time, when, during 
sixteen years of prayers and tears, she sought of 
God what she at last obtained — the conversion 
of her son ? 

Did St. Francis of Sales lose his time when 
he labored during twenty-two years to attain 
meekness of heart ? 

Perseverance is one of the chief qualities of 
prayer. 

Let us never weary of praying ! God often 



154 SHOKT AXD FAMILIAll ANSWERS 

seems to be deaf that we may cry to TTim more 
loudly and more frequently. He seems to liide 
from us in order that we may feel His absence 
more sensibly, and appreciate better the sweet- 
ness of His presence. 

Let us recall the promise of our Divine 
Master. '' Seek^ a^d you shall find." We 
shall find, we are assured that we shall find. 
But we are not assured that we shall find im- 
medialehf, St. Monica, that woman full of 
faith and perseverance, only found her desire 
after the lapse of sixteen years, and it is her 
unshaken constancv which sanctified her. Tlie 
Oanaanite woman in the Gospel obtained her 
child's life after asking three times, and this 
delay, so painful to the heart of a mother, was 
the trial and the triumph of her faith .... 

Let \\^^ then, never be weary. In the very 
hour, perhaps, when our courage forsook us, 
(xod was at hand to help us ! 

The very moment in which we lost courage 
was, perhaps, when God was just about to 
come to our aid. 



XXXV. 

WHAT HAVE I EVER DONE TO OFFEND GOD 
THAT HE SHOULD SEND ME SO MUCH TROUBLE? 

Answer. ''Man of little fixith," who un- 
derstandest not the secrets of God ! When He 



TO OBJECTIONS AGAI^'ST RELIGION. 155 

visits you with suffering, never, I beseech you, 
propose to llim that dreadful question, '' Vv^liat 
have I done to offend you, that I should thus 
suffer?" 

It is very sddom that He could not replv to 
you, by spreading out before your terrified 
eyes, a*" long and' frightful list of sins, which 
your religious indifference veils from your ob- 
servation^ and the eternal pains of hell wliich 
these sins have merited a hundred times over ! 

He might always reply to yon by recalling 
to your recollection the terrible flames of pur- 
gatory, by reminding you that none are holy in 
His sight, and that the mitigated pains of this 
present life are very trivial in comparison with 
the expiation that is to comie. 

He might ahcays reply by showing to you 
the Paradise where He now dwells, the manger 
at Bethlehem, the cross ; an.d by telling you 
that your journey through tliis world is but a 
passing condition of trial ; that He has given 
to you the example of patience, so that by the 
holy use of suffering, you may sanctify your 
soul, and accumulate on your head a gi^eat 
am<junt of glory in eternity. 

He might recall to you those oracles which 
fell^ formerly from His divine lips. 

*'Yerily, verily, I say unto yon, ye shall 
weep a^nd mourn, while the world rejoices. 
But your sorrow shall be turned into joy. A 
woman when she is in labor hath sorrow, be- 



156 SHOET a:n^d familiar akswer^ 

cause her hour is come; but when she has 
brought forth the child, she remembereth no 
more the anguish, for joy that a man is born 
into the world. So also, you now indeed have 
sorrow, but I will see you again, and your 
heart shall rejoice ; and your joy no man shall 
take from you.'^ . . . 

Whatever you may be, a just man or a 
sinner, endeavor to appreciate the adorable 
mystery of suffering ! To suffer is to receive 
a familiar visit from God! Suffering is the 
most precious gift of His mercy. 

It is the crowning mark of His love. 

God had no more excellent gift to give to 
His only Son, Jesus ; to Mary, His Mother, 
the best beloved of all His creatures ; to His 
saints, His martyrs, and to all His faithful. 

If you suffer with Jesus Christ, joii will be 
crowned with Him. It is by means of the 
CROSS that we attain to glory. 



XXXYI. 

WHAT IS THE USE OF PRAYING TO THE VIR- 
GIN MARY? IT IS GREAT SUPERSTITION. BE- 
SIDES, HOW CAN SHE HEAR US ? 

Answer. Tell me, how can you hear me-? 
I hear j^ou with my ears. 
I know that ; it is not exactly what I asked 
you. 



TO OBJECTIONS AGAIXST RELIGIOIS'. 157 

I ask you how you can hear me with your 
ears ? 

I move my lips ; they slightly stir the air ; 
and this air penetrates into your ear, and there 
is arrested by a little bone covered with skin, 
and called the tympanum of the ear. And 
this is how you hear what I say to you ! 

How is that brought about ? What connec- 
tion is there between the breath of air on the 
tympanum, and my thoughts which become 
manifested to your mind ? — Tf we did not daily 
witness this fact, we should certainly never 
credit it. It is, nevertheless, very certain that 
such is the case. 

Well ! when you have explained to me, how 
you, who are two paces distant from me, can 
hear me, and enter into communication with 
my thoughts when I speak to you, I will ex- 
plain to you how the Blessed Virgin and the 
Saints, who are in heaven, can hear my prayers 
and answer them. 

The same God who makes you hear me, 
makes them hear me, when I ask them to 
intercede for me to Him. 

By what means does God effect this ? It 
signifies little to me. What I know^ is, that it 
is the case ; that God does make known to the 
Blessed Virgin, w^hom He has raised, alone 
amono;: all his creatures, to the wonderful dio;- 
nity of HIS mother, to her whom He gave to 



.158 SHORT AI^D FAMILIAR AI^-SWERS , 

\i3 to be a Mother^ an advocate, and a protectress^ 
when He died on the cross, that He does make 
known to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the pray- 
ers, and the wants of His people ; that He 
always listens to the intercession of Her whom 
He loves above all the works of His hands; 
that He still comes among ns through Her, as 
lie did on the day of His Incarnation, and 
that the surest Vvay to reach to Jesus, is to go 
to Mary, who presents lis before Her Son and 
our God, thus covering by Her prptection our 
unworthiness and our imperfect dispositions. 

What I also know is, that there is nothing 
more soothing, more cheering, more consoling, 
than to love the Blessed Virgin, to conhde to 
Her our troubles, and to offer Her our hearts. 

And, furthermore, that devotion toward Her 
makes us better, renders us chaste, pure, meek, 
humble, makes us love prayer, gives joy and 
peace of heart. ... 

What I know is, that in loving and serving 
Mary, I am only imitating, though very im- 
'perfectly, our Saviour Jesus Christ Himself. 

He was the lirst who loved His mother ; so 
good, so holy, beyond all creatures ; He first 
ministered to Her, and rendered Her all sorts 
of horioi% of duties, of obedience. 

And as He said to me on the eve of His 
death, '^ I have given to you an example, 50 
that laltat I have done^ yon may also do^^ I 
endeavor to love and honor in the most perfect 



TO OBJECTIOKS AGAINST RELIGIOiT. 159 

manner tlie Blessed Virgin Maey, whom He 
^o perfectly loved and honored. 

This is not the proper place for a treatise on 
devotion to the Blessed Virgin. 

Bat it is, however, the place in which to 
Bay that hatred to this particular devotion has 
been the universal mark of all heresies, of all 
religious insurrections; that Mary is never 
despise! and forsaken without our soon seeing 
Jesus forsaken; and even that we never see 
any one neglect or lessen their devotion in 
order to become better, or to become better in 
consequence. 

It must be said that the poor Protestants are 
much to be pitied that they do not know and 
love their Mother ! . . . that they do not 
receive Her whom Jesus Christ has chosen, 
has loved, has united inseparably to the mys- 
tery of His incarnation, to the mystery of His 
manger in Bethlehem, to those of His infancy, 
of His hidden life, of His public life, to the 
mystery of His sufferings, and of our redemp- 
tion ; Her whom He associates in heaven with 
the adorable mysteries of His glory and His 
royalty. 

They must surely tremble, when, casting 
their eyes over the history of all Christian 
ages, they find none which does not condemn 
their silence, and which has not realized the 
prophetic language of the Blessed Virgin her- 



160 SHORT AND FAMILIAR ANSWERS , 

self : " All generations shall call me blessed." 
(St. Luke, c. i.) 

Nowliere do we perceive that solitary Christ 
(ireamed of by Luther, Calvin, and their disci- 
ples, but Christ as he appears in the eyes 
of the prophets, as he appears in the gospel 
histories, the Son of the Virgin, formed of her 
flesh and blood, borne so long in her womb 
and in her arms, fulfilling toward her, for a 
period of thirty years, the duties of the most 
obedient Son, expiring before her eyes, and 
again resting in her arms before being removed 
from the ci'oss to the sepulchre. ... 

They seem to fear that they shall rob Jesus 
Christ of all the veneration that they pay to 
Mary. — :Bnt does it not betray a great want 
of knowledge of the human heart, which is 
formed in the image of that of God, to fear to 
w^ound a friend, by showing, for his sake^ a 
great affection for his mother? Is it not for 
the sake of the Son that we love the Mother? 
And is it not to Jesus Christ tliat all this 
homage returns? 

Now, that there may be abuses of this prin- 
ciple, and some extravagances among the igno- 
rant relative to this devotion to the Blessed 
Virgin, who denies ? What is tliere, however 
holy, which has not been sometimes carried to 
excess? But these abuses nre reproved by the 
Church. The bishops and clergy take snitable 
measm^es to remove such excesses among the 



TO OBJECTIONS AGAINST RELIGION. 161 

faithful, as soon as ever they come to their 
knowledge. 

In all that regards devotion to Mary, believe 
me, the most usual extreme is quite on the 
other side^ she is too little venerated rather than 
too much. For any honor short of adoration 
(and sho mast not be adored ; adoration is due 
to God alone) can hardly be too great for her. 
We shall never honor her in so eminent a 
degree as God honored her in making her His 
MoTUEE. We shall never love her as much as 
Jesus, our model, loved her. 

As Catholics Ave are the great family of 
Jesus Christ. Is it, then, astonishing that we 
should love His Mother? 



XXXVII. 

WHY AEE THERE NO MORE MIRACLES? 

Answer. A miracle is a sensible fact, mani- 
festly surpassing the powers of nature. 

It is something which God only can do, and 
wdiich shows His intervention in tlie thing's of 
this v7orld in an extraordinary manner. 

'' Why are there no more miracles ? " it is 
asked. 

To this question I w^ill furnish two answers: 

1st. There are miracles yet, and a great 
many of them exist. 2dlv. It is very natural 
11 



162 SHOKT AKD FAMILIAR ANSWERS 

that there are fewer now than in the first ages 
of Christianity. 

1st. Miracles do still exist, 

I, w^ho speak to yoa in this little book, could 
tell you that I have witnessed some, and that 
I have also seen many persons in whom 
authentic miracles have been operated, such, 
for instance, as the instantaneous recovery 
from incurable diseases. 

But I prefer quoting an instance of more 
general application. 

An Englisli Protestant was at Eome during 
the pontificate of Pope Benedict XIV. He 
was talking with one of the cardinals, of the 
Catholic religion, attacking it with much 
energy, and, above all, rejecting, as false, 
miracles worked bv the intercession of the 
saints. 

Not long after, this eanie cardinal v\'as com- 
missioned to examine certain papers relating 
to the beatification of a certain servant of 
God. He placed them in the Protestant's 
hands, advising him to examine them care- 
fully, and to let him hear his opinion on the 
degree of faith which these testimonials 
merited. 

After a few days had passed, the English- 
man brings back the papers. " AVell, sir," 
demands the Prelate of him, '^ wdiat is your 
impression on the subject of these docu- 
ments 1 " 



TO OBJLCTioxs agai:n^st religion. 163 

" Upon ray word, your Eminence, I must 
own that I have nothing to say ; and if all 
the miracles of the saints canonized by your 
Church were as certain as these, it might give 
me cause for reflection." .... 

" Really?" said the cardinal to him, smiling; 
" well, we at Rome are more difficult to con- 
vince than you are, for these proofs have not 
seemed sufficiently convincing to us, and the 
cause is reiected." 

The Englishman was so struck with this 
manner of acting, that he acquainted himself 
more thoroughly with the Catholic faith. He 
abjured Protestantism before quitting Rome. 

■jSTow, this extraordinary severity still exists 
in the process of the canonization of the saints. 
And as saints are canonized at the pi'esent 
day as in all past ages,"^ and on the other 
hand, none is canonized without a rigorous in- 
vestigation, and without at least five separate 
miracles being proved to have occurred through 
his intercession, we may fairly affiinn that 
miracles do still exist 

2dly. I reply: There are ^ei^er miracles than 
at the rise of Christianity, and it is quite 
natural there should be. 

For three reasons : 



* Pope Pins IX. canonized, in 1863, the martyrs of 
Japan, and, in 1867, St. Paul of tUa Cross and many 
other saints. 



164 SHORT AND FAMILIAR ANSWERS 

1. Because the real object of miracles has 
been attained : namely, the conversion of the 
world, and the establishment of the Christian 
Religion. 

2. Because this object being once attained, 
and having only been attained through the 
means of miracles, and very striking ones too, 
is an everlasting attestation of the fact of these 
miracles. 

The evidence of the divinity of the Christian 
religion, manifested by great 'prodigies^ was 
alone able to convince the sensual pagans and 
the stubborn Jews; Ist, of the divinity of 
Jesus Christ, poor and crucified ; 2dly,- of the 
truth of His doctrine, altogether opposed to 
their most deeply-rooted ideas; 3d]y, of the 
divine mission of the apostles and their suc- 
cessors. 

The world converted to Christianity without 
the means of miracles, would have been the 
most astounding, the most incomprehensible 
of miracles. 

3dly. Because we have now before our eyes 
as striking a proof of the divinity of our faith 
as the miracles shown to the early Christians 
were ; I speak of the prophecies of the Gospel, 
and their accomplishment in the world. 

There are tw^o divine and supernatural facts 
which prove the divine origin of Christianity ; 
1, the miracles of Jesus Christ and His envoys ; 



TO OBJECTIOKS AGAIXST RELIGION. 163 

2, the accomplishment of the Gospel prophe- 
cies. 

The early Christians saw the miracles per^ 
formed, thetj did not see the accomplishment of 
their Divine Masters prophecies; they were, 
nevertheless, obliged to believe them firmly ; 
and they believed them without ditticulty, be- 
cause of the miracles vv^hich they witnessed.*'^ 

We of the present day do not see the mira- 
cles which our fathers saw, but we see tlie ac- 
complishment of the Gospel prophecies ; and 
what we tiius see causes us easily to admit the 
miracles which we have not seen. 

Evident miracles caused the early Christians 
to admit the certain future accomplishment of 
the prophecies : the evident accomplishment of 
the prophecies causes us to admit the certain 
reality of the by-gone miracles. 

Miracles were the proofs of the early Chris- 
tians ; prophecy, on the contrary, is our proof, 
by the evidence of the divine fact of its accom- 
plishment. 

And let us observe that this proof, derived 
from the accomplishment of the prophecies, is 
perhaps more peremptory than that derived 
from the miracles of past times, in this sense, 
that time daily augments its force. 

Thus, the stability of St. Peter's See, the 

^ To believe, is to admit the truth of any thing on tha 
testimony of others. 



166 SHORT AKD FAMILIAR ANSWERS 

permanent dispersion and, at the same time, 
the preservation of the Jews, during nineteen 
conturiesj fee, are facts much more striking 
and remarkable than if they had only subsisted 
during three or four centuries. And if the 
w^orld endures yet some thousands of years, this 
proof of the divinity of religion will be much 
more irresistible in three or four thousand 
years than it is at the present day. 

It is, therefore, not astonishing that there 
should be fewer miracles now than during the 
lirst ages of Christianity. 



XXXVIII. 

WHY IS LATIN THE LANGUAGE OF THE CHURCH ? 

WHY USE AN UNKNOWN TONGUE? 

Answer. Because, for immutable dogmas, is 
required an immutable language, which should 
guarantee from all alteration, even the formula 
of those dogmas. 

Because, for a universal community is re- 
quired a universal language, which should 
maintain, preserve, and proclaim aloud thu 
unanimity of the faith, and the universal fra- 
ternity of the true Religion. 
. Protestants and all the enemies of the Cath- 
olic Church have always made the use of the 
Latin tongue a subject of bitter reproach to her. 
They are conscious that the immobility of thia^ 



TO OBJECTIONS AGAIKST EELIGIOK. 167 

cuirass maryelloiisly preserves from all altera- 
tion those ancient Ciiristian traditions wliosa 
testimony crushes them. They desire to break 
the form J in order to strike at that which it 
covered. Error willingly speaks a variable and 
changing language. 

If this reproach is closely scrutinized^ however^ 
it will be found to have no foundation. Are 
there not innumerable persons who understand 
Latin ? Are nob all sermons and instructions^ 
that is, all those parts of divine worship which 
address themselves directly to the faithful, con 
veyed in the vulgar tongue? Are not great 
numbers of the prayers and other services of 
the Church translated? What Christian is 
there who is prevented from follov/ing the office 
because of the mysterious language of the altar ? 
Do not certain ceremonies, certain sounds, as 
that of the sacristy- bell, acquaint ail who are 
present with what is going on, and what tlie 
priest is saying ? If they are distracted and in- 
attentive, is it not their own fault ? 

Besides, nothing can equal the dignity^ 
grandeur, clearness, and beauty of the Latin 
language. It is the language of the conquerors 
of the world^ the Romans ; it is the language 
of civilization ; it is the lano-uao-e of science. 
This language is the queen of languages ; it 
deserved to become the language of Religion. 

Besides the great changes which alter funda- 



I 



168 SHOKT AKD FAIVOLIAH ANSWERS, 

mentally tlie living languages, there are many 
others which appear only slightly important, 
but are really very important indeed. Thus 
every-day usage alters the sense of words, and 
often debases it by licentiousness. If the 
Church spoke our vernacular, it would be in 
the power of every shameless wit to render the 
most sacred words of the Liturgy either ridicu- 
lous or indecent.^ 

Under every imaginable point of view, the 
language of religion should be taken out of the 
domain of human caprice and human muta- 
bility. 

This is why the Catholic Church speaks 
Latin. 

XXXIX, 

PRIESTS ARE ALWAYS ASKING FOR MONEY. 

Answer, Yes, but is it for themselves? 
They only ask for it, as far as I know, for the 
support of the poor, and the expenses attend- 
ing the celebration of divine worship. Do you 
blame them for this ? Are they not the pur- 

* It may be remarked that every one of these accidents 
has actuaUy befallen tbe English liturgy of the Anglo- 
American Episcopalians* A number of words used in 
this rite have entirely lost the meaning in which they 
were first employed ; a more subtle and dangerous change 
has taken place in the grammatical forms ; while many 
expressions have become overlaid with vulgar, ludicrous, 
and profane associations. 



TO OBJECTIONS AGAIi^ST KELIGION. 169 

veyors of the poor, and the fathers of the indi- 
gent? Are they not the ministers of God^ 
charged v/ith the honor of His worship, and 
the care of His temples? 

They have often to ask, it is trae ; but is not 
this partly your own fault ? Why are you, who 
are so lavish in your pleasures, so parsimonious 
in giving for the good of others ? Why do you 
give so little when they ask you for your con- 
iribution? Is it not your ill-timed economy 
which obliges them, in spite of themselves, to 
return to the charge? 

Moreover, think you that it is possible to 
meet great expenses without great resources ? 
Only put yourself in the place of your parish 
priest, having the care of all the poor of the 
place, obliged to keep up and found benevolent 
societies, obliged to keep the Church and all 
that belongs to it in good condition and re- 
pair, a more expensive item than you imagine. 
Is not money necessary for all this ? 

Do not be surprised, then, if you are asked 
for it. Such an outlay, be assured, will cause 
you no remorse. Neither will it ruin you. 
Almsgiving never yet ruined any one. If you 
have much, give much ; if you have little^ give 
a little ; but the little you give, give cheerfully. 

Priests are men of faith and charity. Let us 
have more faith and more charity, and we shall 
understand why they are always " begging*'* 



170 SHORT AI^D FAMILIAR AI^SWERS 



XL. 

CONFESSION IS AN INVENTION OF THE PRIESTS. 

Answer. Here is a great question. 

You understand its bearing, my dear reader ? 
If it is God v/ho invented this thing, we must 
submit, for it is madness to resist God. If it 
is not God, but a man, such as you or I, we 
must (pardon the expression) send him about 
his business, himself and his invention, for it 



is about the most disagreeable invention we 
could possibly know of 

To confess is to own one's sins, that is to 
say, to tell a priest all the evil one has ever 
committed, however disgraceful it may be. — I 
ask you, what can be more disagreeable? 
What greater sacrifice could be required of 
man's pride ? 

Must this sacrifice, then, be made ? Ami 
bound in conscience, on pain of revolt against 
God, to confess ? 

Yes. 

For the confession of sins, to be made to the 
Priest, Vv^as instituted by Jesus Christ Him- 
self, the Son of the living God, who came 
down upon earth, and became Man for our sal- 
vation. 

Let us in fact open His Gospel. 

We tl^QVQ find two sayings of this Divine 
Master, relating to the confession of sins, and 



TO OBeTECTIOK'S AGAIXST RKLIGrOH'. 171 

tbe power given by Him to His ministers to 
remit sins to the contrite sinner in liis name. 

The first of these sayings is the promise made 
to His apostles by Jesus Christ, of giving them 
this power. The second is the accomplishment 
of this promise. 

1. The 'promise. It is to be found in the 
Gospel of St. MattheWj chap, xviii. : ^^ What- 
soever ye shall bind on earth shall he hound in 
Heaven^ and wha^tsoever ye shall loose o:^^ 

EARTH, SHALL BE LOOSED IN HeAVEj^/' 

2. The realization of the promise, (St. John, 
c. 20.) It is on Easter day, the very day of 
the liesurrection. (And what in truth was 
that divine power which Jesus Christ was to 
confer on His apostles, but the power of resus- 
citating souls dead through sin ?) 

The apostles are assembled together, trem- 
bling with fear in the upper chamber. They 
are shut up for fear of the Jews, who have 
crucified their master two days previously. 
.... Suddenly, the doors being shnt, Jesus 
appears in the midst of them. "Peace be 
with you," saith He, "it is I, be not afraid." 
They are terrified, they will not believe what 
their eyes behold ! But they touch the sacred 
body, the wounds in the hands, in the feet, in 
the side. And they fall at the feet of the Sav- 
iour, risen from the dead, and adore Him. 

Jesus breathed upon them : " Receive the 



173 SHORT AND FAMILIAR ANSWERS 

Holy Gfhost,^^ saith He to them : " .45 My Fa- 
ther sent Me, so send I you.^^ — That is, as My 
Father sent Me, the Saviour of mankind, I, 
equal with my Father, eternal and omnipotent 
like Him, send you. I send you to be the 
saviouj' of your brethren ; I send you as depos- 
itaries of those treasures of salvation which I 
have amassed to shed forth upon mankind ; 
depositaries and dispensers of My sacraments, 
which I have made to contain all tlie merits of 
My l^assion and death. " As My Father sent 
Me^ so send I you. Recp:ive the Holy Ghost. 
Whose sins ynu shall forgive they are forgiven 
them; and whose sins you shall retain they are 
reiaiyiedy 

Is there any need, I ask, to argue on such 
words? Who will venture to deny that Jesus 
Christ here gives to His Apostles, the first 
priests and pastors of His Church, the power 
of pardoning or retaining sins, according as 
they shall see tit? Who can deny that He 
establishes them here as judges of all con- 
sciences, judges with full power to pardon or 
retain ? 

Therefore, it is He, Jesus Christ, the Son 
of God made Man, who has willed and or- 
dained that every man who has committed sin 
and VvMshes to be pardoned, should have re- 
course to the ministry of His priests, who are 
comuiissioned to judge his soul, and to pro- 
nounce, in the name of God, his sentence. 



TO OBJECTIOI^S AGAIlsTST RELIGION. 173 

And it is therefore He, and He only, who has 
instituted, commanded, and imposed on the 
world confession. 

What use, indeed, to the priests of Jesus 
Christ, would this power of pardoning or re- 
taining sins be, if there were any other means 
of obtaining their remission ? What meaning 
would the words of the Lord have ? Of what 
use to give the keys of the door to the porter, 
if the house can be entered by another w^ay. 

And besides, what means Vv^ould the priests 
have of pronouncing sentence at all reasonably, 
if the guilty person did not come to own his 
sins, which often are known only to himself. 

Christians are, then, bound to confess their 
eins to their priests, if they wish to obtain the 
pardon of God. Confession is, by divine right, 
the road to pardon ; he wdio desires the end, 
also desires the means; he who does not avail 
himself of the means, wdll never attain the 
-end. 

Accordingly, in all ages^, men have confessed 
their sins to the Priests. 

History has preserved to us the name of 
Charlemagne's confessor, in the ninth cen- 
tury. 

In the fourth century, we see the great St. 
Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, engaged in hear- 
ing the confession of the penitent : and the 
contemporary author of his time adds, '' that 



174 SHORT AKD FAMILIAR Ajq-SWERS 

he wept so at the sins which per&ons confessed 
to him, that they could not but weep with 

At the same epoch, we hear of St. Aiignstine 
reproaching the African heretics for the pre- 
tension, since renewed bj Protestants, of not 
confessing to any but God alone. " Is it then 
in vain," he exclaimed, '' that the Lord has 
given to the Church the keys of heaven ? Has 
He said in vain, 'All that ye shall loose on earth 
shall he hosed in Heaven?'^ — You scoff at the 
Gospel ! You promise what it refuses ! '^ 

In the second and third centuries we also 
find^ in the books which have been preserved 
of the ancient doctors, striking testimonies of 
the necessity of confession of sins to a priest, 
to obtain the pardon of God. 

In the catacombs, many seats have been 
found, which, from their form and position in 
tlie chapels, &c,, were evidently those belong- 
ing to confessionals. 

Finally, in the Book of the Acts of the 
Apostles, we see that the converted heathens of 
Ephesus, obedient to the voice of the Apostle 
St. Paul, '' came in vast numbers to oion and 
to confess their deedsP ^ 

Do people confess any thing but guilty 
deeds, sins? And what does this passage in 



* Confitentes et aiinunciantes actus suos. (Acts of tlie 
Apo&tles, six. 18, 19.) 



TO OBJECTIOKS AGAIKST RELIGIOIT. 175 

the Book of the Acts mean,, if not the confes- 
sion of sins ? 

You see, then, that it is God our Saviour, 
who has given to us confession, as the remedy 
for all the diseases of our souis, as the means 
of being restored to the favor of our heavenly 
Father. 

It is an invention full of mercy, of kindness, 
of consolation. It costs us something, it is 
true, especially when its long neglect has 
caused an accumulation of many faults, and 
very serious ones. But that first moment 
passes quickly, and then — what joy! what 
peace! What happiness to find oneself once 
more, as long ago, the child of God, the friend 
of Jesus Christ ! If confession is a yoke, it 
is that ^' SWEET yohe and light burden ^\ of 
which our Saviour spoke. " Ihke it^^^ adds 
this kind Master, " and you shall find rest to 
your souls,^^ 

Go to confession, and you will see if it is 
not so. 

XLL 

WHAT IS THE USE OF CONFESSION? 

Answer. In the first place, it is evident 
that there is some good in it, since it is a 
divine institution, and God does nothing with- 
out a motive. 



176 SHORT AND FAMILIAR Ai^SWERS 

But you ask farther what is the «se of con- 
fession ? Oo to confession^ and you 'will see what 
the use of it is. 

You will see it is of use in order to become 
good, from bad that we v/ere before ; you will 
see it is of use in correcting our vices and 
causing us to advance rapidly in the practice 
of the most heroic virtues. 

, What is the rise of confessimi ? Ask that poor 
child whom shameful habits once degraded, 
while their brand was already stamped on 
his countenance • . . See him now completely 
changed in physical appearance as in moral 
condition. What has he done, then ? He has 
been to confession, he goes to confession • . • 
formerly he went not. 

What is the use of eorfession? Ask that 
workman, formerly so dissolute, and with such 
a passion for the grog-shop ; now so chaste, so 
sober, so well-conducted, so industrious^ be- 
come in a short time a model for all his com- 
rades ! His wife and children find that con- 
fession is of some use. 

What is the use of eorfession f Ask that 
poor woman, over^vhelmed with misery, bur- 
dened with several children, ill-used by her 
husband . » . She has often wished, the Iiap- 
IjBSs creature, to go and end her sorrows in the 
river . • . The thought of God and of her 
children has arrested her. She approaches the 
confessional . . • I know not what were the 



TO OBJECTIONS AGAIKST RELIGIOi^. 177 

words said to lier, but see her returning to her 
home, with a peacefu] heart, with an ahnost 
cheerful countenance. She bears her sorrows 
more patiently ; endures her husband's harsh 
treatment in silence • . . He is surprised at 
the change at first, then he admires it, then hd 
loves it, then he imitates it Reckon up : one 
suicide less ; a mother preserved to her six or 
seven children ; a well-conducted household 
and a virtuous family more in the world. 

After this poor woman^ it is perhaps a ser- 
vant that we see, who, during many years, 
continued to make his small private profits 
somewhat boldly^ at his master's expense. Re- 
morseful feelings take possession of his mind ; 
he seeks the priest , . . If the master takes 
heed to his atfairs, he will see his expenses 
diminished, without his house being less well 
kept up . . . And one day he receives a bank- 
note worth four or five hundred francs from an 
unknown quarter. "^^ 



* Jean Jacques Rousseau, in spite of his religious lia- 
tred, liimseU* acknowledged the utility of confession : 
** What restitutions and reparations,'" he says in IvL^EmiU^ 
*' confession is the cause of, among Catholics! '' 

A priest one day had occasion to remit to a Protestant 
minister who was in the habit of turning into derisioi 
Catholic confession and communion, a considerable sum 
of money wliich had been stolen from him. This re- 
markably practical argument made a great impression on 
the mind of the minister. "'It must he owned!* he has 
since said, ** that confession is a very good thing/ " 
12 



178 SHORT AKD FAMILIAR AIliTSWERS 

Reckon up: a thief less in the world, per- 
haps the shameful stigma of the gallej^s averted 
from a respectable family ; an honest servant 
more, 

What is the use of confession? Ask the poor 
inhabitants of any district. The wealthy pro- 
prietor of the surrounding lands left them to 
suffer want and poverty ; spending all his for- 
tune on himself . . . Some little time since he 
went to confession, and still goes . . . and see 
him become the fiither of his unfortunate ten- 
ants ; he even anticipates their necessities. 
They, poor creatures, find that confession is 
of some use ! 

Confession is the shield of perseverance and 
virtue,— It is the bark, rough and harsh to the 
touch,' I own ; but the protecting bark which 
preserves intact that wonderful fruit which is 
called conscience. 

Confession gives back and preserves that 
peace of mind without which there is no hap- 
piness. 

It prevents innumerable crimes and mis- 
fortunes. 

It raises np the poor sinner whose weakness 
has separated him from God! It, above all, 
consoles the dying man about to appear before 
his God and his Juds:e ! "^^ 



* Mo.Tjsieur Tissot, a celebrated Genevese physician, 
and, Uke nearly aU the inhabitants of tliat unhappy 



TO OBJECTIONS AGAIKST EELIGIOK. 179 

What a change would be visible in France 
if every one were to go to confession, v/ith all 
sincerity and seriousness, as they ought ! 

The laws and the police would be much less 
frequently called on for interference. In this 
single lav/ of the Church, ''you must confess 
all your sins, at least once a year," there would 
be power enough to regenerate the country, 
and arrest those revolutions which so fre- 
quently have disturbed its peace. 

Judge the tree, then, by its fruits. • 

It is the same with confession as v/ith re- 
ligion itself; its only enemies are ignorance, 
prejudice, and the passions.f 

town, Geneva, a Protestant, once cited with admiration 
an instance of an unlooked-for recovery of a Catliolic 
lady supposed to be dying", tlie result of confession. 
This lady became so calm, and her mind seemed so com- 
pletely peaceful, after receiving the Sacraments of the 
Church, that the effect became apparent also in her 
bodily health. The fever diminished, and thus the 
alarming syinptoms gradually disappeared, and the pa- 
tient became convalescent. '^ Hold great ^ then'' said 
Mens. Tissot, ''must the iiifiitencG of confession he over 
CatJiolics! '' 

Another Protestant physician, Mens, Badel, ovvns the 
same opinion. He proves by various examples, *'that 
confession is serviceable, not only to individuals, but to 
society at lar^e, and that it deserves the attention of all 
"who seek the welfare of the human race." 

f The eminent physician Dr. Forbes, in his late work, 
" Memorandums made in Ireland, in the autumn of 1852," 
has borne such strong testimony in favor of the Catholic 
doctrine of Confession, and one at the same time so 
valuable, as proceeding from a Protestant author, that I 



180 SHORT AlsTD FAMILIAR AXSWERS 



XLII. 

I BO NOT NEED TO GO TO CONFESSION. I HAVE 
NOTHING TO REPROACn MYSELF WIIH ; I HAVE 
NEITHER KILLED NOR ROBBED ANY ONE, NOR 
HAVE I INJURED ANY ONE. I SHOULD HAVE 
NOTHING TO SAY. 

Answer. And this is the result of your 
examination of conscience ! My good friend, 
one of two things, then, must be true : either 
you are an exception to all men, or else you do 
not see clearly into your own conscience. 



canDot forbear quoting what lie has written on the sub- 
ject.— E. S. M. y. 

** At any rate the result of my inquiries is, that — 
whether right or wrong in a theological or rational point 
of view — this instrument of confession is, among the 
Irish of the humbler classes, a direct preservative against 
certain forms of immorality at least." — P. 81, vol. II. 

"Among other charges preferred against Confession, 
in Ireland and elsewhere, is the facility it affords for cor- 
rupting the female mind, and of its actually leading to 
such corruption So far from such corruption result- 
ing from the confessional, it is the general belief in Ire- 
land — a belief expressed to me by many trustworthy 
men in all parts of the country, and by Protestants as 
well as Catholics — that the singular purity of female life 
among the lower classes there, is, in a considerable de- 
gree, dependent on this very circumstance." — P. 83, 
vol. II 

*' With a view of testing, as far as was practicable, the 
truth of the theory respecting the influence of Confession 
on this branch of morals, I have obtained, through the 



TO OBJECTIOISrS AGAI^^ST RELIGIOI^. 181 

And shall I say it to you frankly ? / am 
mre you are a man like the rest of men and 
that the second hypothesis alone is the true 
one. 

You have nothing to reproach yourself 
with ? — Let us examine a little. It would be 
singular enough, were I to see more clearly 
into your conscience than you do yourself. 

1. Let us first consider how you stand with 
regard to God. You will acknowledge, of 
course, that you owe Him somethinrj. He is 
not your Creator, your Master, your Father, 
your last end, for nothing. 

Do you adore Him ? Do you pray to Him 
daily? Do you give Him thanks for His ben- 
efits bestowed on you ? 

Do you implore His pardon for your trans- 



courtesy of tlie Poor Law Commissioners, a return of the 
number of legitimate and iUegitimate cliildren, in tlie 
workhouses of each of the four provinces in Ireland, on 

a particular day, viz the 27th of November, 1853 

It is curious to remark how strikingly the results there 
conveyed correspond with the Confessional theory : the 
proportion of illegitimate children coinciding almost 
exactly with the relative proportion of the two religions 
in each province ; being large where the Protestant ele- 
ment is large, and small where it is small,'' &c. — P. 245, 
vol. II. 

''Memorandums made in Ireland, by John Forbes, 
M. D., F. R. S. Hon. D. C. L. Oxon, Physician to Het 
Majesty's Household, author of a Physician's Holiday," 



182 SHOET AI^D FAMILIAE AI^SWEES 

gression of His law ? Do you obey that 
law? 

Does tlie thought of Him who should be 
your lirst and chief occupation^ enter at all 
into your daily life? The poor idohitrous 
savages honor their false gods. And you, who 
know the true and living God, do not you live 
as if He did not exist ? 

Here, then, is one point which you had not 
well examined, when you just now said that 
you had nothing to reproach yourself with, 
and that you would be puzzled to know what 
to say to the ghostly father. 

2. And your duties toward others ; are you 
always faithful to them ? Look into your con- 
science an instant ; here again how much is 
wanting ! 

Fraternal, sincere, and efficacious charity ; 
devotion to others ; mercy toward the poor ; 
indulgence for the failings of your neighbors ; 
respect for their good name ; forgiveness of 
injuries; mutual assistance; good example; 
duties as a citizen ; family duties — the duties 
of a good son, good father, of a good husband ; 
of a good master and good servant ; of a good 
and faithful friend; of a conscientious work- 
man, or a just and humane employer, &c. ;' 
the list is a long one. Do you fulfil them all ?y 
, Here then, too, you have excellent matter 
for your next confession. 

3, In your duties toward yourself, I think I 



TO OBJECtlOKS AGAIKST RELIGION. 183 

can guarantee, that if you neglect the practice 
of religion, there will be still more matter for 
confession. Let us see : 

You have an immortal soul; what care do 
you take of it ? You live ahnost as if you had 
none. 

When you perform some benevolent action, 
what are the motives which animate you? 
You know that the intention makes tiie action, 
as says the proverb. A bad intention renders 
the best seeming actions bad. Is it a motive 
of duty which inspires your actions ? Is it the 
desire of accomplishing the will of God, of 
doing what is pleasing in His sight, or is it 
not rather personal interest, ostentation, the 
desire of being held in esteem and considera- 
tion by the world ? . . . 

How do you stand with regard to sobriety, 
to temperance ? 

How do you stand, above all, as regards 
puriVj? . . . Were your son to conduct him- 
self in your presence as you conduct yourself 
in the presence of God who sees all things, 
would you not banish him from your house as 
a dis^irace to vou ? . . . Did anv other man 
speak to your wife, or sister, or daughter, as 
you have so often done to other women and t^ 
young girls, what would you think of him? 
would you not consider him to be highly cul- 
pable ? 

And are 3^ou not contaminated by that 
which contaminates others ? . . . 



184 SHORT AKD FAMILIAR ASTSWERS 

This scrutiny of your conscience miglit be 
pushed much further even; the mine is not 
exhausted, I assure you. 

Enough has been here said, however, to con- 
vince you, if you wish to be convinced, that, 
notwithstanding your perfect innocence, you 
have done enough to make an excellent, long, 
and serious confession, Yop have on the one 
hand the ^^ins; I have just pointed out to yoti 
the greatest ; on the other, I doubt not, you 
have the good-will. You know some good 
priest, probably, who will be enchanted to see 
you, and to pardon you, in the name of God, 

Go, then, and seek him, and with a willing 
mind. 

It is only the first step that is hard to take ; 
the diiriculty, the shame, is soon over; the joy, 
the peace of mind abides. 

''Bat I have not been for so long a time ? " 
— The greater reason have you for going, you 
stand in more need of it. 

" But I should have so much to say." — So 
much the better ; the big fish are the best. 
Confessors like great sinners better than little 
ones, from the moment that they i^epent. 

^' But I can never recollect all." — What sig- 
nifies ! Tell what you do recollect ; repent of 
all, and God, who only requires the will to 
confess all, will pardon all. Repentance is the 
great thing in confession. 

Take iny advice, and go to confession. You 



TO 0BJECTI0:J^S xIGAIXST RELIGIOlsr. 185* 

will see that you will be happy, and quite en- 
chanted^ when you shall have got through 
with it. 

True happiness on earth is in peace of mind, 
the fruit of a good conscience. 



XLIII. 

IT 13 GO TIRESOME TO GO TO CONFESSION. 

ANsvy-EK. Accordingly^ I did not advise you 
to go for the sake of amusement ! 

Every thinH: which is P'ood and useful is not 
always aninsmg.— it is not (nnusmg to take 
physic when one is ill. However, one takes it 
for the sake of being cured. — It is not amusiivj 
to wor:c from morning till night to gain a live- 
lihood for oneself and tamily, to lay by savinga 
for one's old age. But then it is useful, it is 
necessary to do so ; and one works, although tha 
work may be laborious, disagreeable, difficult.^ 

So ib is with confession. It is a remedy, a 
disagreeable remedy, so much the more dis- 
agreeable, in proportion as we have more need 
of it; biij then it is an indispensable remedy. 
It is not for my amusement that I go to con- 
fession, but to be cured of my spiritual maladies, 
and to preserve miy spiritual health. 

Have a little more energy, then. Do not 
allow yourself to be overcome Vvdtli the great 
disease of our age, which is a weakening of th^ 



186 SHORT AKD FAMILIAR AKSWERS 

relish for duty. Duty, that great and siibliine 
word, conveys no meaning to many minds. 
They comprehend nothing but pleasure. 

Beware of tjiis deplorable weakness, and re- 
member the judgments of God ! 



XLIY. 

TO GO TO CONFESSION" WAS ALL VERY WELL 
WHEN I WAS AT SCHOOL ; BUT NOW ! 

Answer. But noiOj when I have ten times 
more need of it, I no longer go ! 

Bat noWj that my passions are developing 
themselves, that I am surrounded wdth tlie 
dangers of the world, exposed to evil on all 
sides, wdiat is the use of taking precautions ? . . . 

Poor human heart ! how it wanders at ran- 
dom, w^hen, instead of obeying reason, it pre- 
tends to guide it. 

Confession is needful at every period of life, 
because it is always necessary to obey the laws 
of God, promulgated by the Catholic Church. 
NovvT, tlie law of God commands every man 
capable of committing sin, without any excep- 
tion, to confess his sins at least once a vear. 

At every period of life, one stands in need 
of confession, because at every period of life 
we commit sin, because at any period of life w^e 
may die, and confession alone is the divine 



TO 0BJECTI0l!5'S AGAIIS'ST RELIGI0:N". 187 

remedy which effaces sm, and keeps the soul 
in readiness to appear before God. 

In proportion as man advances onward in 
this life, the combats he has to encounter be- 
come more violent, the attacks he has to sus- 
tain more frequent and formidable, his many 

foes more numerous still Is it, then, the 

time to lay down his arms ? 



XLV. 

I KNOW SOME DEVOTEES WHO ARE NO BETTER 
THAN THEIR NEIGHBORS. SO-AND-SO, WHO GOES 
TO CONFESSION, IS NONE THE BETTER FOR IT. 

Answer. That proves, 1. That either the 
person you name does not confess properly, 
and is not seriously a Christian ; 

2. Or else, that his nature is singularly 
callous, since so powerful an influence as Reli- 
gion does not render him better than most 
men ; 

3. Or else (and this is the most probable) 
that you are mistaken, audjud^/e him unjustly. 

Christians, please to remember, do not cease 
to be men because they are Christians. They 
retain the weakness and inconsistency that be- 
longs to poor human nature, which has been 
60 profoundly corrupted by sin ; and, conse- 
quently, their actions are not always in ac- 



188 SHOUT AKD FAMILIAR ANSWERS 

cordance with tlieir principles, their desires, 
and their resolutions. 

But if religion does not correct all the defects 
of our characters, if it does not entirely and 
immediately destroy all imperfections, at least 
it diminishes them, and destroys them little by 
little. It unceasingly commands us to combat 
them ; it offers very simple and powerful means 
of becoming not merely better, but as perfect 
as humanity allows. Look at the Saints ; look 
at St. Frcvncis of Sales. St. Francis Xavier, St. 
Vincent of Paul ; they were real Christians, 
nothing more ! 

Thus, upright and courageous souls, who 
make use of these means, correct themselves 
promptly, and end by becoming first better, 
then good, and then by attaining to excel- 
lence. 

What is very certain, is, that the majority 
of those who exclaim against devotees, are, 
three-fourths of the time, ten times worse than 
they : they see the mote in the eye of their 
neighbor, and do not perceive the beam which 
is in their own. 

Religion cannot hut render us better. He who 
has defects, and yet is a Christian, would have, 
these defects, in a much greater degree, if he 
were not one. 

And further, he would possess the great and 
capital defect which you do, who blame him 
for being religious ; that of not rendering to 



TO OBJECTIONS AGAIlSrST KELIGIOK. 189 

God the worship which He requires from all 
men, that of adoration, prayer, and obedience. 



XLVL 

HOW CAIsr THE BODY OF JESUS CHRIST BE 
REALLY PRESENT IN THE EUCHARIST? IT IS 
IMPOSSIBLE! 

Answer. I have but one thing to say in 
answer to you, but it is sufficient. 

It is so ; therefore it is possible. 

It is so ; therefore you ought to believe ity 
though you may not understand how it can be so, 

I say, then, that it is so^ that Jesus Christ is 
truly and really present in the Ploly Eucharist, 
and that after the consecration in the Mass, it 
is no longer bread on the altar, in the priest's 
hands, bat the living body and blood of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, veiled under the simple 
appearances of bread and wine. 

'i'o convince you of this, I shall not spread 
before your mind the history of all Christian 
ages, from the Apostles down to the present 
day, believing, adoring, loudly proclaiming this 
Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Sacrament 
of the Eucharist. It would, certainly, be a 
grand and convincing fact, to see the greatest 
geniuses, the most profound and learned doc- 
tors, adoring with the most full and lively faith, 
the Sacred Mystery of the altar. 



190 SHOKT AKD FAMILIAR AXSWESS 

But besides that this course would lead us 
into developments too diffuse for the space of 
this work, I wish merely to trust to your can- 
did judgjnent and honesty; to these, only, I 
now address myself, and I will only cite to you 
word for word, and almost without any com- 
ment, the very Vv^ords of Jesus Christ, vrho de- 
clares that the Eucharist is Himself, His body. 
His flesh, His blood. 

He speaks of the Eucharist on two occasions 
in the Gospel : the first to promise its institu- 
tion, (about a year before Plis Passion ;) the 
second, (on the eve of His Passion,) to institute 
it, and thus to accomplish His promise. 

His first saying respecting it, is in Chapter 
VI. of St, John, i-Tth and following verses; it 
is this ; I propose its consideration to your own 
good sense: ^'Aiiien, Amr^iij 1 say unto you^ he 
that BELiEVHTH in Me hath everlasting lifeP He 
first exacts faith in His w^ords ; for v/hat He is 
about to say is the profoundest mystery of 
faith. 

'^'"1 am the Bread of Life P 

*'/ am the living bread luhich came doion from 
heaven. If any man eat of this bread he shcdl live 
forever: and the bread that I will give^^ is my 

FLESH FOR THE LIFE OF THE WORLD." 



* Observe tliese words ; Jesus Christ promises this mys- 
terious bread ; He does not give it as yet ; He will do so 
at a later period ; '' the bread that I sJiall give." 

It is not, then, as the Protestants say, a Hg'urative man- 



TO OBJECTION'S AGAIl^^ST EELIGIOK. 191 

The Jews, to whom He spake, said to them- 
selves what you say to yourselves^ ^' How can 
He give lis His flesh to eat ? " How can that 
be '^— And they would not believe Him. 

See how our Lord Jesus Christ afiirms again 
His real presence in the bread which he prom- 
ised to them : '^ Amej^, ame^, I say unto yof, 
except you eat the flesh of the Soivr of man, 
and DEiNK HIS BL00D5 you shall not have life in 
you, 

'''He that ecdeth my flesh, and driiLketh my 
blood, hath everlasting life ; and Iioill raise him 
up in the last day, 

" For my flesh is meat indeed^ and my blood 
is drink indeed. 

"IJe that eateth my flesh, ojid drinheth my 

BLOOD, ahidetJi in Jie, and I in Him He 

that eateth iliis bread, shall live for ei;e?\" 

What do you say to this ? Do yon not 
believe Jesus Christ's own ¥7ords^ affirming 
to you that the Eucharist is His body and 
blood, and with an nnderjiable clearness of ex- 
pression, so overwhelming, that Protestants 
have struggled vainly during three hundred 
years, and racked their brains in every way to 
escape from the evidence which these w^ords 
carry with them ? 

ner of speaking of tlie doctrine wliicli He preaclied, for 
He actiiaUy was tben giving that doctrine ; one cannot 
promise tliat wliicli we have ah-eady given, and which we 
ave giving aD that very moment. 



193 SHOUT AKD FAMILIAR ANSWERS 

2. If tliese first words relating to the promise, 
are as clear as noonday, those relating to the 
institution of the Eucharist are not less so. 

On the eve of His Passion, our Lord, after 
the supper, takes bread in His divine and ven- 
erable hands, blesses it, and gives it to His 
Apostles, saying: '^Take ye and eat this is My 
Body:' 

Is this clear or not ? This which I hold and 
give to you, is, what ? My Body, 

Then He gives to His Apostles, who were 
His first priests, the command and the power 
to do what He had just done Himself, by 
adding these words, ''^And you^ as often as you 
shall do these things^ you sltull do i/iern in com- 
memorailo n of Me. ' ' 

Men of honesty and truth, hear and judge : 
This is My Body ! ! ! 

For myself, I declare this one sajnng is suffi- 
cient for me, and not only is it to me the con- 
vincing proof of the presence of Jesus Christ 
in the Eucharist, but it proves to me, in a no less 
irrefragable manner, His divinity, l^o man 
has ever said, or ever could say such a thing ! 

A very simple observation vvill perhaps facil- 
itate your belief in the Eucharistic mystery ; it 
is this : 

Nature offers to our sight numerous examples 
of the so-called impossible change of one sub- 
stance into another. 



TO OBJECTION'S AGAIKST RELIGION. 193 

The most striking of all is that of corporal 
nourishment. The bread which I eat is changed, 
by the mysterious process of digestion , into my 
body, my flesh aiid blood. The substance of 
bread is cliangecl into that of my body. 

That which God causes daily to take place in 
us in a natural manner, why can He not cause 
it to take place supernaturally in the mystery of 
the Eucharist I 

You see, then, that it is not impossible that, 
through divine Omnipotence, the bread and 
wine should be changed upon our altars into 
the substance of the Body and Blood of our 
Lord Jesus Christ ; and that the Church, in 
teaching the doctrine of His real presence in 
the Blessed Sacrament, does not teach, as the 
ignorant and unthinking declare;, an absurdity, 
or that wdiich is impossible and revolting to 
reason. 

!N"ow, HOW does this wonderful prodigy come 
to pass? I do not hnow^ and the greatest doc- 
tors do not know any more than others. It is 
the mystery of faith, the secret of the Almighty. 
What we do know is, that it is so, and that is 
sufficient. 

Through this adorable presence, Jesus 

Christ, the Kins: of souls, the Life of Chris- 

tians, the Head of the Church, the refuge of 

einners, the merciful Saviour^ the Consoler of 

13 



194 SHORT AliJB FAMILIAR ANSWERS 

all griefs, is ever in the midst of His people. 

Grod and Man at the same time, He is 

the living bond v/hich unites us to His Father 
and our Father. He adores Him perfectly and 
supplies the imperfections of our homage. He 
asks mercy for the continual sins of the v/orld. 

He is present during all the generations of 
mankind, whom he loves and has saved alike, 
so as to receive from each succeeding one, to 
the end of the world, the homage of its faith, 
of its adoration, of its worship, and of its 
prayers. 

If the Blessed Sacrament is the mystery of 
faith, it is, also, and still more so, the mystery of 
Love ! 

Let us, then, believe, love, and adore. 



XLVII. 

I DO NOT NEED TO GO TO MASS I I PRAY TO 
GOD JUST AS WELL AT HOME. 

Answer. And do you really pray to Him at 
home ? Pardon me if I am wrong ; but I 
have a slight suspicion that you do not pray to 
Him any more at home than at Church. 

The real question, you see, is not to know 
whether you can pray to God as well at home 
as during Mass ; but to know whether God 
wills that on Sundays and Festival days you 



TO OBJECTIONS AGAIKST RELIGIO^^. 195 

shonld liear Mass, and pray there instead of 
at home only. 

Now, He does will it. 

We have ah-eady discussed this together, 
and decided that the religious laws of the pas- 
tors of the Catholic Church were binding in 
conscience, because they are derived from the 
authority delegated to them by Jesus Christ. 
"He 101)0 lieareth you Jiearetli Me; andlieiolio 
despiseth you despiseth MeP 

When the Church commands lis to be pres- 
ent at the celebration of Mass, on Smidays and 
festival days, it is disobedience toward our 
Lord Jesus Christ, and toward God, to neglect 
to go. 

The reason which caused this law to be 
passed, is very important ; the law itself, ac- 
cordingly, is not less so. It is the absolute 
necessity of a public worship rendered to 
God. 

We do not only live individually as men, as 
Christians ; we are also a religious society ; and 
this society, of which we are members, being 
established by God Himself, has duties to fulfil 
to Him, as well as each one of us in partic- 
ular. 

Now, the public worship of this Christian 
Society (or Chnrcli) is precisely this attendance 
at the Sacrifice of the MasSj which unites us all, 
in the presence of our God, in His temple, on 



196 SHORT AND FAMILIAK ANSWERS 

days set apart for this purpose, some actually 
by God Himself/'^ others by our Lord, others 
by the Apostles or their successors. 

To abstain from associating, at these solemn 
moments, with the rest of the Christian family, 
is to renounce, in some measure, the title of 
Christian^ of child of God, disciple of Jesus 
Christ, and member of the Catholic Church. 

Thus, it is a great sin to neglect hearing 
Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation, 
without a real and good reason for so doing. 

The serious nature of such negligence may 
be better understood as the grandeur, holiness, 
and divine excellence of the Sacriiice of the 
Mass is understood. 

The Sacrifice of the Mass is, as it were, the 
core of Eeligion. 

It is the unbloody continuation*, through all 
ages and generations, of the bloody sacrifice of 
Jesus Christ. 

There is no essential difference between the 
Sacriiice of the Cross and the Sacrib!ce of the 
Mass. It is the same and the onlij Sacr^fice^ offered 



* It was Go:l Hims3li' wlio instituted from the begin- 
ning of t!ie world tlie s?ventli day's rest, m perpetual 
reinembranc'j of the creation and of eternity. The Sun 
day is the Lord's day, when we raiist soeclally occupy 
curse! ves about Him, and prepare ourselves for our eter- 
nal destiny, which will bo the eternal rest anJ the eter- 
nal Sabbath. 



, TO 0BJECTI0:N'S AGAIXST KELIGIOK. 197 

xmder a different form. The priest is tliG same ; 
Jesus Christ, visible on Calvary ; invisible and 
hidden in the priest at the altar. The victim 
is the same ; Jesiis Christ, bleeding on Cal- 
vary, not bleeding and nnder the veil of Sacra- 
ment, on the altar. These difierenees are 
purely exterior and apparent j the substance, 
the Sacrifice, is the same. 

By the mysterious and divine words uttered 
by the priest, or rather by Jesus Christ, Vv-ha 
speaks by His minister, the same miracle of 
love whieli was operated at the Last Supper, 
on Holy Thursday, is daily renewed on our 
altars. The bread and wine are chano-ed into 
the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, and only 
preserve the mere appearance of bread and 
wine; so that there is really nothing on the 
altar, after the consecration, but the Body and 
Blood of Jesus C'hrist ; Jesus Clirist living, 
and tiiiis uniting in tlie Blessed Sacrament, 
all the mysteries of His mortal and of His; 
glorioLis life. 

Seek, then, to compreliend the grandeur of 
your faith, and alter your language regarding 
it. 

Come with the rest of your brethren, come 
to your Saviour ; it is for you tliat he descends 
upon our altars, it is for your salvation that he 
immolates Himself in this great mystery. 
withoat Him you cannot save your soul ; and 



198 SHOUT AITD FAMILIAK AKSWEES 

yet you neglect Him, you despise Him, you 
prefer futile occupations, follies, trifles of all 
kinds to Him ! . . . 

Return to yourself, I beseech you, fulfil a 
duty which is as easy as it is serious and ne- 
cessary. 

Go on Sunday and prostrate yourself before 
your good God, to take a review of the week 
past, and make a holy provision for the week 
following. God will bless you, and you will 
feel happy. 



XLYIII. 

I HAVE NO TIME. 

Answer. Have you time to eat and drink ? 
No doubt. 

And why do you eat and drink ? 

What a question ! To keep myself alive. 
Nourishment is the life of our bodies. 

Which is of the greater value, your soul or 
your body ? 

What strange questions I My soul, of 
course. 

In that case, then, take at least as much 
care of your soul as you do of your body ! 
You find, you take time enough to insure the 
welfare of your body, and you do not devote 
any to that of your soul. 

I should like to see your employer undertake 



TO OBJECTIONS AGAIKST KELIGIO:^". 199 

to deprive you of the time for your meals ! 
You would certainly quit him, liim and his 
shop, without much ceremony, and say, hefore 
every thing elsc^ one must live. 

Well, 1 say to you, and much more urgent- 
ly, too, hefore every thiwj else^ before securing 
the welfare of your body, before eveky thing-, 
do not let your soul perish, which is the prin- 
cipal part of you ; your soul, VNrhich makes you 
a man; for by our bodies we are but animals; 
it is the soul v/hieh makes us men, and distin- 
guishes us from the brutes. 

ReHgion gives you the life of the soul in 
uniting it with God, and you say, I have no 
time to practise religion ? Very well, then 
take it, this necessary time. Take it, at all 
costs, no matter how, or at vdiose expense. 

No one in the world has the right to deprive 
you of it, neither your employers, your teach- 
ers, your father or mother ; to this there is no 
exception ! 

The eternal salvation of your soul cannot be 
taken from you by any creature living, and if 
any one were to attempt to deprive you of this 
most sacred of all your rights, it would then 
be the moment to put into practice this great 
rule of the apostles : It is better to obey God than 
man, 

'^ But my trade," you say, "prevents my 
laboring for my Svalvation." 



200 SHOET AiTD FAMILIAR AKSWER3 

Is that true ? Take care of your answer ; 
for if you reply yes^ after having thought 
seriously of it, I should tell you: Then you 
must leave it and take up another. 

Life passes quickly, indeed ; but eternity 
remains. What advantage Vv^ould it be to you, 
to gain the v/hole world, if you were to lose 
your soul ? 

But let us be honest. Is it really true that 
y<3u cannot be saved, that you cannot live in a 
Christian way, in the condition of life you are 
in? 

Is it this trade of yours which prevents you 
from offering up a short prayer morning and 
evening): ? 

Is it that which prevents you from lifting up 
your heart toward God from time to time 
during the day, from offering up to him your 
prayers, your labor, your privations ? 

It is not your trade which makes you swear 
and blaspheme the name of God, frequent 
theatres of bad repute, and dancing saloons, 
taverns, and haunts of vice and debauchery .... 
The time which you thus spend would be a 
hundred times more than enough to make you 
a good Christian, were you to employ it in se- 
curing your salvation. 

No more, then, is it your trade which hin- 
ders you, on the approach of the Church's 
festivals, from seeking in the evening, after 
your day's work is done, a confessor, so as to 



TO OBJECTIOlsrS AGAI:N'"ST RELIGIOjST. 201 

receive, together witli the assurance of for- 
giveness for your sins, advice and encourage- 
ment to enable you to live better for the 
future. 

In a matter of conscience, remember we have 
always time to do luhxd we ivish to do. But we 
must wish it earnestly, energetically, with per- 
severance. 

Never say again, therefore, '' I have no time 
to live as a Christian should do," for you would 
be deceiving yourself. 

Say, if you will, ^^ I have not as much time, 
as many facilities, as I should vv^ish.'^ Granted, 
but after all it is the heart and the wnll that 
God asks from us ; and it does not demand 
much time to be able to love God, to avoid 
sin, and repent of one's faults ; it is not abso- 
lutely necessary to spend a great deal of time 
every day in saying one's prayers : it does not 
demand much time to hear a low Mass said on 
Sunday, barely half an hour, in fact, and to go 
to confession four or five times a year. 

Others do all this, and more besides. I know 
some who never pass a month without ap- 
proaching the sacraments ; and they are not 
the worse workmen for doing that. How do 
they find themselves able to do this ? Imitate 
the good-will which they show, and like them 
you will live as a Christian ; and like them, 
you will go to heaven instead of hell at your 
death. 



203 SHORT AKD FAMILIAR ANSWERS 

To him Y/lio will not give liis time to God, 
God will refuse his eternity. 



XLIX. 

I CAl!^2sr0Tl IT IS TOO DIFFICULT I 

Akswer. Say rather that you loill not. We 
can do all we choose to do, in whatever regards 
conscience and salvation. 

What is wanting is not the power, it is the 
conrage. 11^^ dread labor, we shrink from it. 
The true Christian is brave ; like a good sol- 
dier, who is only the more stimnhited to combat 
by the attacks of the enemy, he fears nothing. 
Resting on Jesus Christ, from Him he gains 
the strength which inspires Iiim. If he falls, 
he rises again, and renews the combat with 
greater strength than he had before. 

''I cannot!" The sluggard, who in the 
morning yawns, stretches himself, and again 
turns to sleej), instead of doing his work, says 
also, " I cannot ! ^'^ 

A day will come M^hen yon will see that yoii 
could. But the time will then be gone, the 
hour for w~orking will have passed away. 

You will be before the tribunal of Jesus 
Christ, and you will hear His awful words, 
" Depart iVom me, ye cursed, into everlasting 
fire which was prepared for the devil and his 



TO OBJECTIONS AGAINST EELIGIOK". 203 

angels." "^ On that day, you will understand 
that you could ! 

However, there is one thing true enough in 
what you say. You certainly cannot conquer 
your evil passions^ and practise the lofty virtues 
of the Christian, if you do not seek the neces- 
sary strength, in the place where it is to be 
found. 

j!^o, you cannot avoid the sins which you 
habitually fall into, if you do not employ those 
means which Jesus Christ your Saviour has 
placed for this purpose in the hands of His 
Church, 

You know what these means are ; in those 
happier days when you were good, pure, honest, 
because you were a Christian in £ict, you 
adopted them, and you know by experience 
all their sweetness, all their efficacy. They 
are — 

Prayer ; 

The sanctification of the Sunday ; 

Religious instruction ; 

The frequenting, above all, of confession and 
Holy Communion ; 

The avoidance of the occasions of sin, of 
unlawful amusements, bad companions, and 
bad books. 

Without these means, no, you certainly can- 

* St. Mattli. XXV. 



204 SHORT AND FAMILIAR ANSWERS 

not be good. With them, not only you can 
be good, bnt there is nothing more pleasant 
or easy. 

How many young men there are, men, too, 
of every age and condition of life, who have 
more violent passions than you have, and yet 
who subdue them, and who have mastered 
them ! Many are more exposed to temptations 
than you are, and have more obstacles of every 
kind to surmount. What they do, why cannot 
you do ? 

I knew an old soldier who had been in the 
habit of swearing by the name of God from 
his childhood. He could not utter two sen- 
tences without swearing. One day, touched 
by a good exhortation he heard, he resolved to 
fulfil liis duties as a Christian. He determined 
energetically to conquer this defect ; and in a 
fortnight's time, he succeeded. Every time 
that the name of God escaped his lips, he said to 
himself: "iiz/ Ood forgive me, thy holy name he 
blessed! " — He did the same whenever he heard 
his comrades fall into the same sin. — ^'I am 
obliged," he said to me, "to do my best; I 
catch myself more than fifty times a day.'' 

We have often seen men addicted to the 
terrible vice of drunkenness, obtain a still 
more difficult victory over it, with a like 
courage. The celebrated General Cambronne, 
w^hen a common soldier, had this detestable 
habit. One day, when intoxicated, he struck 



TO OBJECTIONS AGAINST RELIGION. 205 

an officer, and was condemned to death. His 
Colonel, who was much attached to him, be- 
cause of his brave and loyal character, obtained 
his pardon on condition that he would never 
drink any more wine. Twenty-five years after, 
Corporal Cambronne was General Cambronne, 
and immortalized by his heroic retreat at 
Waterloo. Surrounded by his family in Paris, 
he lived quietly, loved and esteemed by all. 
His old colonel invited him one day to dinner, 
with some old comrades in arms. The place 
of honor at the host's right hand was reserved 
for Cambronne. Some very exquisite wine, 
kept for great occasions, was put on the table. 
^'Ah! General," said the old Colonel, '^you 
will tell me that this is something rare, this 
wine ; " and he was about to fill Cambronne's 
glass. He declines it, — the other insists ; Cam- 
bronne becomes annoyed. "' But, General, I 
assure you, it is excellent ! '' " That is not the 
question ! " Cambronne replied, quickl}' ; " it 
is a question of my honor ! my promise when 
a corporal, have you forgotten it. Colonel ! . . . • 
Since that day I have never touched a single 
drop of wine. My w^ord and my conscience 
are of more consequence than your wine ! " 

There was energy of character ! That was a 
man to admire ! 

Be of good courage then; that is what is 
wanting. A man is a Christian from, the 

MOMENT THAT HE WILLS IT* 



306 SHORT AKD FAMILIAR ANSWERS 



i should be laughed at ! we must not be 
singular; we must do as others do. 

Answer. The reasoning of sheep and goats, 
my simple friend ! Goats, I know, follow one 
after the other, if the first throws itself into a 
hole, the second follows, the third follows the 
second, the fourth follows the third, and so on : 
they throw themselves in because their com- 
panions did so ; in fact, they do as others do ! 

But ought men to act in such a stupid man- 
ner ? 

Alas! How many are like goats in this; 
respect ! How many go to hell because others 
do! 

" AVe must not be singular ! " you say. But, 
indeed, we must be singular, not from pride 
or contempt of others, but because it is neces- 
sary to be good in the midst of a world which 
is bad. 

Evil abounds, and good is rare ; there are 
many wicked men and few good ones, many 
heathens and few Christians. The bad are 
those who form the mass; it is they w^ho 
establish the fashion, the customs. Those 
xvho desire to follow the other road, which is 
the right one, are then compelled to be sin- 
gular. 

Very well ! This very singularity you must 



TO OBJECTIOI^rS AGAINST RELIGIOl^. 307 

adopt. It is tlie sign, the necessary condition 
of your eternal happiness. 

Our Lord Jesus Christ has declared this in 
positive terms : " Enter ye in/' said He,^^ '' at 
the narrow gate; for wide is the gate, and 
broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, 
and many there are who go in thereat. How 
narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that 
leadeth to life: and few there are that find 
it ! " 

"And fear ye not them," He adds in an- 
other part of the Gospel, " that kill the body, 
fend are not able to kill the soul ; but rather 
fear Him that can destroy both soul and body 

in hell."t '^ He that shall deny mo before 

men, 1 will also deny him before my Father, 
which is in heaven. But he that shall per- 
severe TO THE END," in spito, that is, of all 
obstacles, all scorn and derision, in spite of the 
examples and temptations held out by the 
wicked, " he shall be sayei>." 

Is this warning plain? It is the eternal 
Judge who declares it to ns. It is Tie who 
never speaks in vain, and who proclaims with 
His own lips that '4ieaven and earth shall pass 
away," but that " His words shnll not pass 
away." We mnst, then, nnder pain of eternal 
damnation, be in the vforld as different from 
the v/orld. 

•' St. Matth. vii. f St. Mattli. xxviiu 



208 SHORT AKD FAMILIAR ANSWERS 

We must glory in this singularity, far from 
dreading it, and being ashamed of it. It is 
that which makes us Christians. 



"But I shall be laughed at!"— Well! let 
those laugh at you that like ; you will not die 
of being laughed at! Laugh at those who 
laugh at you; they are the most wortliy of 
ridicule, and you are, in reality, the wise man 
of them ail. Which ought to laugli at the 
other ? the fool at the wise man, or the wise 
rnan at the fool ? 

If any one were to laugh at you because you 
eat and drink, or because you walk with your, 
feet, and not on your head, would you leave.. 
off eating, and begin to walk on all-fours ? No. 
And why not? Because what you did was 
right and rational, and what you were asked to. 
do was absurd. 

Hovv^ much more absurd and foolish is it,, 
then, to lose your soul for the sake of pleasing 
some silly madcaps, whose want of principle 
you despise in the bottom of your lioart! The 
praise of people of that stamp is the thing to 
be ashamed of: their blame is an honor. It is. 
a sign that you are not like them. 

I)o not, however, exaggerate the thing. You 
will not be alone in the riglit path. Though, 
it is true, there are more bad than good men, 
the number of the good is not so small as is 
supposed ; above all, at the present day, when 



TO OBJLCT.OXS AGAIiNiST RELIGIOIST. 209 

religion is resuming her wholesome influence 
over men's minds more and more. — In the en- 
lightened classes of society, it is now an honor- 
able recommendation to be a Christian. 

A few^ years ago, young C * "^ '^ '^, one of the 
most distinguished pupils at the Polytechnic 
School, happened to lose his beads. One of 
his couirades found them, and during their 
time of recreation he called together the school, 
fastened the chaplet to one of the trees in the 
court, and with an air of defiance called out, 
" Let the person who owns this chaplet come 
and claiui it." "It is I who have lost it," 
yonng C "^ "^ ^ "^ quietly replied, commg for- 
ward into the midst of the assembled pupils; 
'' that chaplet is a souvenir given to me by my' 
mother ; I set a great value on it, and recite it; 
every day." — '^ Bravo ! ^' a loud voice wasu 
heard to exclaim. They all looked round ; ifc 
was the general in command of the schoolv? 
'^Well done, my young friend," he added, 
shaking the young Christian's hand; "you are 
a man of feeling and energy. Go on thus; 
you will make your way well in the world!"' 
—Young ^ "^ ^ * was the first who left the. 
school ; but during the whole time of his stay 
there, he was the most esteemed and best likedi 
of all the pupils. 

Be good-humored, obliging, amiable with 
every one ; laugh with them about things., 
which yon may laugh at without displeasing* 
14 



210 SHOET A:N'D. FAMILIAR A^STSWERS 

God ; and they will soon let you alone about 
religion, if it so happens that they have at- 
tacked you on that point, 

I know an Alsadan^ a good Christian, who, 
on joining his regiment, was laughed at by 
several of his comrades. They called him 
devotee^ higot^ hypocrite^ and such-like words. 
One day, when this sort of battle was being 
carried on more sharply than usual, he asked 
his captain's pennission to assemble his com- 
pany in the barrack-room. He fuounted on a 
bench, and thus addressed them : '^^ You may 
ridicule me as much as you please : you will 
not make me change my ways at all. God is 
of more importance than you are, is He not % 
Well ! I would rather please Him than please 
you. Go to bed, if ?f^^^ ^^^'^ sidky about ihat!^ 
The whole regiment might turn to, but I would 
never yield an inch.''^ llis comrades began to 
laugh and applaud him, and from that time 
they never said an offensive word to the 
worthy fellow. 

One day, a traveller made his appearance at 
a table dliote ; it was Friday ; he called for 
abstinence fare. Some of the persons at din- 
ner began to titter ; and one, bolder than the 
rest, addresses him : 



* This is a proverb, here used with equal humor anA- 
good-hnmor, hy our soldier to give his comrades' ideas Sk 
new tarn, and raise a laugh iii liis owa favor. 



TO OBJECTIOISrS AGAIKST RELIGIO:tT. 311 

" Monsieur abstains ? " says he, with a ban- 
tering air. 

" I do, Monsieur,'' replies the traveller, in 
the same tone : " and Monsieur^ he eats 
meat ? " 

'^ I do, Monsieur," said the first, a little dis- 
comfited at finding himself laughed at in turn. 

" So much the worse for Monsieur,'' replies 
the traveller. " Does Monsieur think, then, 
that a man of honor ought to prefer a cutlet 
to his conscience ? For my part, I prefer my 
conscience to a cutlet." 

Those who had been turning him into rid- 
icule, now took his side of the question ; and 
better still, one person present, looking toward 
him, congratulated him on his firmness in per- 
forming this duty : '^I should be sorry. Mon- 
sieur, to see you the only person here who did 
so," he said ; '^ I shall profit by the delicate 
lesson you have given us ; for I am also a 
Catholic. — GargoUy bring me, too, da maigrej^ \ 
(abstinence fare.) 

Never shrink weakly before a word, before 
a look, before a smile 

Let those lose their souls who have them to 
lose : you, who know v/hat your soul is worth, 
save it. Let him laugh who wishes to laugh. 
He vnll laitgh to the purpose who laughs last^ 
says the proverb. 



213 SHOBT AKP FAMILIAR AlsTSWEES 

LI. 

toE OUGHT NOT TO BE A BIGOT. 

Answer. Certainly one ought not to be a 
bigot ! Who says you should ? 

Bigotry is not religion^ it is the abuse of it. 

The defects of persons who are guilty of 
that abuse, generally from ignorance, ought 
not to be imputed to Religion. 

Religion is abused, like every good thing in 
the world. We must reject the abuse, and re- 
tain the use. We must be pious, but we must 
not be bigots. God loves one, but He does 
not love tlie other. He desires to heboid in 
our hearts devotion^ that is, devotedness to His 
service, devotedness to the duties which he im- 
poses, and love of His commandments ; but 
He does not desire to see higotnj reigning in 
them, that is to say, those enthusiastic, those 
narrow-minded or superstitiously religious prac- 
tices, which often replace the chief object by 
the accessories, and substitnte the means for 
the end. 

I^evertheless^ these abuses of religion ai*e 
not so universal or so heinous as they are gen- 
erally said to be. 

Generally speakings they do not injure any 
one, and are only hurtful to those who commit 
them. Those Avho fall into these pitiable 
mistakes are unenlightened persons^ (usually 



TO OBJECTIONS AGAINST RELIGION. 313 

women, for men are less liable to them,) who 
surround and fatigue themselves with numer- 
ous external forms and practices of devotion, 
good in themselves, but carried to too great a 
length ; who assume a certain strangeness of 
manner; who torment their consciences in the 
fear of doing wrong ; and who become excited 
and angry, through misguided zeal, when it 
would be more prudent and wise to remain si- 
lent, &c. 

This is bigotry. It is a great defect, but I 
should be glad to think there were no worse 
ones here on earth ! Those who inveigh so 
loudly against bigotry, and are indignant at 
the absurdities it gives rise to, are too often 
persons who remind one of the criminal, who, 
sentenced to perpetual hard labor for a fright- 
ful murder he had committed, vras indignant 
at having given him for his prison companion 
a thief! 

They are often more worthy of censure than 
those whom thev attack. 

Their profligacy, bad conduct, neglect of the 
most sacred duties, religious ignorance, licen- 
tious conversation, evil example, &c. &c., are 
not these abuses? Are they not crimes ? 

Their whole life is an abuse ; and the abuse 
of devotion is, 1 venture to say, the only 
one they never commit. Would it not be 
as well to exchange this one -for the others, 
I ask? 



214 SHORT AND FAMILIAE AKSWERS 

Do not, then, be a bigot, but a Christian, and 
a good Christian. Love God, serve Him faith- 
fully, observe all His commandments ; fulfil all 
your duties, so as to be pleasing in the eyes of 
God, and listen with docility to the teaching 
of the ministers of Jesus Christ. 



LII. 

A GHEISTIAK LIFE IS TOO TIRESOME- IT IS 
TOO MELANCHOLY. TO DEPRIVE ONESELF OF 
EVERY THING, BE AFRAID OF EVERY THING, 
WHAT A life! 

Ansv/ ER. Tut, tut ! Gently, gently, my 
good friend ! Do not be frightened before 
you are hurt ! A Christian life does not 
oblige you to '^ deprive yourself of every 
thing, and be afraid of every thing.'' You 
exago;erate the thing ; if the Gospel is a yoke, 
our Lord Jesus Christ, who imposed it on us, 
declared Himself that '' this yoke is sweet, and 
this burden ligrht." 

You know, I dare say, some pious Chris- 
tians? Do they look so very depressed, so 
very gloomy or unhappy ? 

All those whom 1 know, on the contraiy, 
have a peculiar expression of peacefulness and 
joy on their countenances ; the very sight of 
them is pleasant. 



TO OBJECTIONS AGAIKST RELIGIOi^. 215 

I do not, indeed, deny, that to be a really 
good Christian, it is necessary to keep strict 
watch over oneself, and shun certain evil or 
dangerous pleasures. I do not deny that the 
struggle of the will against evil passions is 
often a difficult one. 

But find, if you can, a condition without 
sacrifices or struggles ! To learn your trade, 
to make your living, must you not give your- 
self trouble, and a great deal of trouble ? 

Do not even our amusements compel us to 
impose some sacrifices on ourselves ? . . . 

And yet we require that the chief, the most 
important, the only needful thing, namely, the 
work of our eternal salvation, should cost 
nothing! It is impossible. 

The world beholds Christians praying, 
doing penance, imposing restraints on them- 
selves, giving of their means to the poor, 
stifling their passions, depriving themselves 
of sensual gratifications, and doing such and 
such thino^s which make this life ri2:orous and 
disagreeable in their eyes. 

But this is only the outer rind. Look within, 
and you will see a heart generous and full of 
joy, which renders easy, even agreeable, these 
sacrifices so difficult in appearance. 

A good son, who deprives himself of some- 
thing for his mother's sake, is he not happy in 
his self-imposed privations ? 

Christian piety changes into sweetness what 



216 SHORT AKB FAMILIAR ANSWERS 

is bitter in the practice of duty ; like the bees^ 
which change into honey the bitter jnice v/hich 
they suck from the thyme blossoms. 

Try^ and you loill find it so. We must ex- 
perience these things, words cannot make them 
understood by those who have not experi- 
ence. 

For this, you have but to carry back your 
thoughts to the days of your childhood. There 
are few men who have not felt the happiness 
of the love of God at the great and solemn 
moment of their first communion . . . You 
were happy then! . . . and why? Because 
you were pure and innocent, more given to 
good things; in a word, because you w^ere a 
Christian. 

Be one again, and you w^ill be happy again. 
The God of your childhood is not changed . . . 
as you, alas ! are ; He still loves you, and 
awaits the return of the prodigal son. Be 
not afraid of Him; He is the good Saviour, 
the refuge of repentant sinners. '' Never ^'^ he 
has said to us, '* will J reject him that cometh to 
me!'' 

Take this gentle and light yoke of a Chris- 
tian life, and you will find rest, peace of mmd, 
true joy in this world, and after your death 
eternal joy in Paradise. 



TO OBJECTIONS AGAIXST RELIGION. 217 



LIU. 

I AM ]SrOT WORTHY TO APPROACH THE SACRA- 
MENTS : WE OUGHT NOT TO ABUSE HOLY THINGS. 

Answer. ]S"o, but we ought to use them ! 

'Next to sacrilege, the greatest insult we can 
offer to Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament 
is neglect of it. 

There are two kinds of persons who should 
approach the Sacranients : the pious who de- 
sire to persevere in good; and the bad who 
desire to become good. 

In abstaining from them, you fly from life. 
To heat water again, do you take it away from 
the fire ? To cure a malady, do you leave off 
the remedy? 

Tlie Sacraments are like remedies to the 
sick. Approach them, then, not because you 
are worthy, (no one is worthy of God,) but to 
become less unworthy; not because you are 
strong, but to heal your weakness. 

Go to Jesus Christ ; without Him you can- 
not be saved. Go and seek Him where He is 
to be found ; in confession, by which He puri- 
fies His temple of your heart ; in the Holy 
Communion, where He enters in person, into 
that dwelHng which He has purified. 

Do all that depends on yourself, and fear 
not. Only have a willing heart; you wiU 
always return better from it. 



^18 SHORT AXD FAMILIAR AXSTTERS 



LIV. 

MY SINS ARE TOO GREAT; IT IS BIPOSSIBLE 
THAT GOD CAN r.UlLK)N ISIE ! 

Ansaver. Impossible ? Poor soul, jou know 
not the heart of Jesus Christ ! 

Have you committed more sins than Ma^-- 
dalen ? Magdalen, a woman of notoriously 
l)ad life ; Magdalen, a scandalous sinner ; who 
was repulsed bv all, as if her touch were con- 
tamination ! — ilave you forgotten her his- 
tory 'i 

The good Jesus has been invited to dine 
Avith Simon the Pharisee. All are at table, 
reclining at it according to the custom of the 
Jews. A woman entei-s, she throws herself at 
the Saviour^s feet, and without speaking, bathes 
them with her tears and covers them with 
kisses . . . The Pharisee recognises her, it is 
the sinful Magdalen : '' If this man were the 
Son of God,'' he thought within himself, " He 
would know that this woman is a sinner ! '\ . . 
Jesus, knowing his thoughts, says to him, 
'' Simon, I have somewhat to say to thee." 
''Master,'' answers the Pharisee, ''say it/' 
'' A certain creditor had two debtors, the one 
owed five hundred pence, and the other tifty. 
And whereas they had not wherewith to pay, 
he forgave them botli. Whicli, therefoj'c, of 
the two loveth him the most i '' '" lie, with- 



TO OBJECTIONS AGATlSrST RELIGION". 219 

out doubt," answers Simon, " to whom he 
forgave mo3t."r— '' Thou hast judged rightly," 
said Jesus Christ. And turning to the poor 
Magdalen, " Dost thou see this woman ? I 
entered into thy house, thou gavest me no 
water for my feet ; but she, with tears, hath 
washed my feet, and with her hair hath wiped 
them. Thou gavest me no kiss ; but she, since 
she came in, hath not ceased to kiss ray feet. 
My head with oil thou didst not anoint ; but 
she with ointment hath anointed my feet. 
Wherefore, T say to thee, many sins are for- 
given her, because she hath loved much. But 
to whom less is forgiven, he loveth less." . . . 
And without heeding the murmurs of the 
Pharisee : '' Woman," said He to Saint Mag- 
dalen, '' go in peace and sin no more." 

And after this you despair of the goodness 
of God ? . . . Oh ! no ; the heart of the 
Saviour is always the same. He expects you 
with a marv^ellous patience. Go and cast 
yourself at His feet, weeping for your sins. 
They are great, yes; but His goodness is yet 
greater! He has declared with His divine 
lips : " Him loho cometh to me I will never 
rejedP 

Recall to Him the sufferings which He un- 
derwent for you. His manger at Bethlehem, 
His poverty, His agony, His Passion, His 
crown of thorns, His flagellation, His Cross, 



220 SHORT AKD FAMILIAR AKSWERS 

His death. . . . Recall to Him His Mother, 
that gentle Mother whom He has given to you 
purposely to be your advocate, your refuge and 
hope. . . . 

Then, with repentance in your heart, go and 
seek the minister of pardon, the judge who 
dispenses mercy, the confessor. . . . Entreat 
his indulgence and aid. He will give them to 
you, do not be afraid ; for God desires that 
they should always be given to sinners. Then 
you will hear, amid yonr tears, those mighty 
words of eternal life, which restored Magdalen 
to life, and which, of Magdalen the sinner^ has 
made the admirable Saint Mary Magdalen! 
''Thy sins are forgiven thee; go and sin no 



more." 



LV. 



YOUTH MUST PASS.* 



Answer. Must pass in what ? In follies ? in 
sins ? in losing one's soul, one's honor, one's 
health, one's money, with rakes ? in doing 
what God forbids to do ? — A strange morality, 
certes ! and I know not w^hat passage in the 
gospel it is taken from ! 



" The French means something more, and impUes, 
*• We must enjoy ourselves while we are young" ; " but as 
the answer turns on the word pass, it was necessary to 
retain it. 



TO OBJECTIOKS AGAIISTST RELIGIOK. 221 

Yes, youth must pass, but it must pass, like 
the whole life, in the practice of virtue, the 
shunning of evil, and the performance of 
duty. 

The only difference between youth and age 
is, that youth has more energy and strength, 
and can thus do good with more zeal, more 
ardour, and more devotion. 

This is how youth should be spent, so as to 
be pleasing in the sight of God, and of man 
also; so as to be the preparation for a ven- 
erable old age, blessed of God ; and to sow 
that harvest which the soul is to reap on the 
threshold of eternity, when its journey is at 
an end. 

There is no more captivating sight in the 
world than a holy and spotless youth. Nothing 
can be more beautiful, or more touching, or 
more amiable, than a young man who is pure, 
modest, industrious, and faithful to all his 
duties. 

Oh ! if young Christians did but know what 
they are ! for no earthly consideration would 
they forego their glory ! 

Once lost, it can never return. Repentance 
is beautiful, bat it is not innocence. 

If youth but kneio ! if age only could ! 



322 SHORT AKD FAMILIAR ANSWERS 



LYI. 

EXTREME UKCTIOK KILLS A SICK MAN. IT IS 
ENOUGH TO FRIGHTEN HD^I TO DEATH. THE 
PRIEST SHOULD NEVER BE SENT FOR WHILE 
CONSCIOUSNESS REMAINS. 

Answer. That is it ; the confessor must be 
sent for when the patient can no longer con- 
fess; the priest must be sent for when his 
presence is useless ! There would be a course 
more simple yet : — not to send for him at all, 
and to let people die like the dogs. . . . 

Is Jesus Christ, then, the God of the dead ? 
Did He send His priests to comfort and help 
dead corpses ? 

It w^ould be almost impossible to calculate 
the number of unfortunate souls which have 
been lost for ever through this fatal prejudice. 
It is in vain that each day gives it the lie, and 
shows the sick and dying, shedding tears of 
joy and consolation after having received the 
last Sacraments of the Church ; it makes no 
impression, and whole families calling them- 
selves Christians, seem to enter as it were into 
a common league against the priest, to hinder 
him from saving the soul of a father, a mother, 
a child, or friend, wdiich is about to a]3pear 
before its God ! 

When sent for too late to save the departing 



TO OBJECTIONS AGAIi^ST KELIGION^. 2:23 

soul, tlie priest endeavors to make the relations 
and friends sensible of the wrong they liave 
done : '' Oh, no ! " they exclaim^ '^ he was 
suali a good, virtuons man I Slie was sucli a 
w^onhj woman ! He was so regular ! She 
loved her children so much, and was such a 
good mother. We need have no fears." — And 
perhaps ten or tw^enty years may have elapsed, 
during which the unfortunate deceased has 
lived in forgetfulness of Jesus Christ, and in 
the neg 
tian life 



the neglect of the essential duties of a Chris- 



Be very certain of this, the poor dying man 
is not afraid of the priest ! The sight of a 
priest does not hasten his death ! On the con- 
trary, his visit consoles and strengthens him, 
relieves his mind, and sometimes even his 
physical condition. I^umerous physicians have 
stated the equally touching and unexpected re- 
sults produced by the fulfilment of religious 
duties among the sick. 

A short time since I witnessed an example of 
this, which I shall never forget. I was sent for 
on Shrove Tuesday, in the year 1850, to attend 
a child whom the doctor had given up. The 
poor mother was prepared for the worst. I 
gave the poor little thing the last Christian 
Sacraments, 1 heard his confession, I gave him 
the Holy Viaticum as his first communion. 



224 SHORT A]srD FAMILIAE A:N'SWERS 

.... or rather, as his last ! He held his little 
hands joined together during this sad and 
pious ceremony. And when I asked him 
afterward, if he felt peaceful and happy, he 
made an effort to summon strength enough 
to smile, and reply, "Yes, father, very 
happy." I left him, never expecting to see 
him again. 

The following morning the doctor was sur- 
prised to find him still alive. But his surprise 
increased on examining him more closely. He 
had no more fever; the symptoms of death 
had disappeared. He could not understand 
it. 

Three days after, the little fellow, thus 
brought back to life, was playing with his 
brother. 

Did Extreme Unction here frighten the pa- 
tient, and cause his death? 

Do not be afraid, then, of the priest. When 
you are seriously ill, send for him at once ; and 
ask for the last consolations of religion. Hold 
yourself in readiness for whatever may happen, 
and make your peace with God. 

To have had one's passport signed, does not 
oblige us to start on our journey. 



TO OBJECTIOKS AGAIKST RELIGIOK. 225 



LYII. 

I WILL PKACTISE THE DUTIES OF RELIGIOK 
SOME DAY, WHEN I AM MORE AT LEISURE. I 
WELL GO TO CONFESSION BY-AND-BY, ON MY 
DEATH-BED. CERTAINLY I WILL RECEIVE THE 
SACRAMENTS BEFORE I DIE. 

Answer. On some future day, you say? 

Yes, certainly ! 

Yes, pro^dded that future day is in store for 
you, and that you have the means of receiving 
the sacraments at the moment of your death, 
you mean ; but this is certainly very doubtful. 

How many have said as you do : '^ To-mor- 
row, some future day," for whom there has 
been nothing in store but judgment and eter- 
nity!.... 

How many have neglected to go to confes- 
sion vv-hen it was quite in their power, who 
have been unable to do so when they fain 
would ! 

You will confess at your death? -And sup- 
pose God were to decree your death before 
your confession ? 

" Oh ! but," you reply, " God is merciful." 
True, indeed ; and therefore He offers you to- 
day a pardon which you do not deserve. 

feut He who has promised pardon to the 
penitent sinner, has not promised to him the 
morrow. 

15 



236 SHORT AKB FAMILIAR ANSWERS 

On the contrary, He has warned hhn to be 
ever on the watch, because death will come 

upon him suddenly Listen to our Master 

and Judge : " Watch ye^ therefore Where- 
fore be you also ready ^ because at what hour yoa 
know not the Son of Man ivill corae .... and He 

will reject the unfaithful servant Then there 

shall be weeping and gnashing of ttethP (St. 
Matthew, chap, xxiv.) 

What madness to risk our eternity on a per^ 
haps ! 

A few years ago, a young inmate of the 
prison de la Roquette, in Paris, onlj^ seventeen 
years old, had refused to fulfil his Easter 
duties, in spite of the cliapLiin's exhortations. 
All the others had listened to the piiest, this 
one was the only exception. 

'^ At another time," he replied, '' not now, 
next year ; not this year ! " 

The day after his fruitless visit to the young 
man, the chaplain was passing along into the 
infirmary of the prison. On one of the doors 
he saw the number of the young prisoner, lie 
entered, and found him on the bed, asleep and 
very pale. He called the sister who attended 
the infirmar}^, and asked what ailed the new 
patient. ^' Nothing serious," she replied ; ''he 
complained of headache, perhaps an attack of 
indigestion." They both re-entered the room ; 
the sister went up to the young man, and spoke 
to him, but he did not reply. "This young 



TO OBJECTIOKS AGAIKST RELIGIO^sT. 227 

man is not well, sister," said the priest, alarmed, 
" send for the doctor." In a few minutes the 
doctor appeared .... the patient was found in- 
sensible. The doctor felt his pulse ; lays his 
hand on his heart. '^ Ah ! my God ! " cried 
he, with an air of stupefaction. 

" What is the matter ? " demands the priest. 
Again the doctor examines the young man : 
'^ What is the matter ? " he exclaims. " The 
matter is that the lad is dead ! " 

" Dead ! " repeated the chaplain, uttering an 
exclamation of horror, " dead!" 

And he regarded, with feelings of unspeak- 
able horror, those half open lips which had so 
recently refused to receive God, saying, "At a 
future time — next year ! " 

In the adjacent room, another young prisoner 
of the same age was lying. The last sacra- 
ments had been administered to him a few 
days previously, and his death Vv^as momentarily 
expected : " Ah ! " said he, when he saw the 
chaplain, ^' I am happy, my good father ! I 

am hoping to see the merciful God soon 

very soon, I hope." And when the chaplain 
told him that it was yet possible that he might 
recover. " Ah, do not say so," he said with 
a smile, " I would much rather die ; I might 
fall again into sin and forget God, were I to be 

restored to health I would rather die, so 

as to behold Paradise ! " 

That evening, the young man expired gently, 



228 SHORT AKD FAMILIAR AJ^SWERS 

mingling with his last sigh the sacred name of 
Jesus. 

Examples of sudden death, entirely unfore- 
seen, occur daily. A short time ago, (in 1849,) 
a poor workman, the father of a family, fell 
from a height of several feet on to the pave- 
ment of the rue Vaugirard in Paris ; he was 
taken up quite dead, without having even ut- 
tered a cry ! But he had listened to the Gospel 

warning for he was in the habit of going 

to confession and receiving the Holy Com- 
munion every loeek. 

If a like accident were to befall you this 
night, would you, do you think, be ready like 
him, to go into eternity ? 

More recently, a man was passing along a 

street in Paris he tottered and fell. He 

was immediately surrounded by the passers-by, 
and carried into a neighboring shop. A doc- 
tor was sent for, who examined him, and pro- 
nounced that death had been instantaneous, 
taking place even before he had quite fallen to 
the ground. The unhappy man was not pre- 
pared for death. 

After thinking of these and similar cases, 
can you count upon the morrow for insuring 
your salvation ? 

After that speak to me of deferring it till a 
future day! After that sleep tranquilly with 
such a thought as this : I will certainly confess 
my sins at the hour of death ! '' 



TO OBJECTIONS AGAi:t;rST RELIGIOIsT. 229 

A poor apprentice had made his first com- 
munion a few months before the period I am 
going to speak of. He had made one resolu- 
tion, but it was with seriousness and sincerity. 
'' If ever I fall into mortal sin, I ivill go and 
confess it before going to sleep the same dayP 

This misfortune happened accordingly. It 
was one Saturday, and it chanced to be very 
bad weather, and the priest was at some little 
distance. He said at first, '^ I will go to con- 
fession in a few days." But the promise he 
had made internally returned to his mind, and 
something within him said, '^ Fulfil your prom- 
ise ; go to confession.'' 

He hesitated, howevero In the midst of the 
internal struggle going on in his mind, he knelt 
down and said an Ave Maria^ to obtain the 

grace of knowing God's will Prayer is the 

salvation of the soul. 

He arose and set off to find the priest. 

On his return, he met his god-mother, who 
inquired of him where he had been ; with a joy- 
ful countenance he told her, and added that he 
should now sleep in peace, having been restored 
to favor with God. His mother was in the 
habit of letting him sleep a little longer on Sun- 
days than on work-days. 

According to custom, therefore, she went to 
awake him at seven o'clock, by knocking at 
the door of his little room, and calling to him, 

A quarter of an hour later, Paul was still 



230 SHORT A2^D FAMILIAR A:N'SWERS 

asleep. His mother called him again, and then, 
impatient at getting no reply, she entered his 
room : " Gome, then, you lazy fellow ! It is 
hall-past seven — are you not ashamed ? " 

She approached her child, who did not stir 

took his hand, which was quite cold .... 

affrighted, she looked at his face and ut- 
tering a fearful cry, fell to the ground sense- 
less The boy was dead, and already cold ! ! 

Happy for him that he did not put oft" till a 
future time! not even till the r}iorroiv ! ! 

May you who read this be as wise as he, 
and do as he did ! 



COITCLUSIOK 

You see, dear reader, all these answers are 
dictated by common sense, nothing more. No 
extraordinary ingenuity of mind, nor any subtle 
tricks of rhetoric are employed in them. By 
merely showing itself, truth is proved. 

There exists, no doubt, in the world, many 
other prejudices against Religion. Errors, 
like follies, have no limit. ISTevertheless, I 
hope I have collected in this small volume 
those objections which are most commonly 
raised. 

The remaining ones, I can assure you, are no 
better founded than those I have noticed. Of 
whatever kind they may be^ they are sophisms, 



TO OBJECTION'S AGAIKST EELIGIOIT. 231 

that is to say, specious arguments, whicli have 
the appearance of reason and truth, but in 
reality are weak on one side or the other. 
There can be no reason opposed to the truth. 

If any one of these objections is an obstacle 
in your path, go, I beg of you, to some good 
priest, (they are not rare or difficult to find, 
God be thanked,) and be assured beforehand 
of the cordial reception you will meet with 
from him. Lay open your difficulty to him 
with all candor; he will show you its easy 
solution. 

Endeavour to become better instructed in all 
that regards religion ; the more we know of it, 
the more we love it ; the more we love it, the 
more we practise its precepts. Many men at- 
tack it because they do not know it. They 
represent religion to themselves as totally dif- 
ferent to what it really is, and therefore they 
think they have very good reason to turn it 
into ridicule. 

I fervently hope that my conversations with 
you may have been somewhat profitable to 
your soul. — Read over and reflect on those 
points of our discussion which have chiefly ar- 
rested your mind. If the reasons I have ad- 
vanced appear to you to be insufficient, I en- 
treat of you to feel very sure that the fault is 
attributable to myself alone, and not to the 
holy cause of that truth which I have desired 



232 SHOKT Ai^D FAMILIAR ANSWERS, 

to defend. The necessity of being as concise 
as possible in my answers, and my own want 
of talent, are the sole reasons of any weakness 
in the defence I have set up. 

Heaven grant that I may have succeeded 
with you, however ! May I have been happy 
enough to have increased in your heart the 
respect due to faith, the love of virtue, and the 
zeal for your own salvation ! This has been m 
only aim in writing this little book ! . . . 
shall then have been laboring for your happi- 
ness, and my little book will have been a good 
action, 

I ask God for His blessing on it, on you, and 
on myself. With this, I take leave of you, my 
dear reader ; to meet asrain, I hope, in Para- 



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